Building Again from the Ground Up
by mediahybrid117
Summary: After being cared for by Frostbite, Danny and the others take a ghost portal to find other people. However, of course, they run into more trouble- Danny's powers start failing when he needs them the most and nobody knows why. This is a sequel to 'Amity Laid in Ruins' so read that first before reading this. Yeah- blood, bad words, and plenty of drama. This was 'Family Care'.
1. Prologue

"It's time that the four of you went to find survivors of your own kind." Frostbite said. "We allowed for you to recover and to regain your bearings. But you don't belong here."

Danny nodded. Sam, Jazz, and Tucker were off spending time with the rest of Frostbite's tribe while they spoke in private. "I appreciate your help." Danny started, "But what if we don't find anyone? What if we really are the last people in the world?"

"It's not possible." Frostbite smiled, "Not only were people evacuated, but there are too many humans in this world for there to be only four people left." He pat Danny's shoulder, "I promise there's someone out there." He reached in his belt, "This is a map of the Ghost Zone. Each of these portals," he pointed to small swirled patterns that laid scattered on the map, "Leads to somewhere in the world. Pick a portal, and that shall be your destination." He said, "You belong with your people, Danny."

He studied the map for a while, "Thanks, Frostbite." He said.

"Anytime, young one." He smiled.

Danny stepped out to the snow village that he and the others had been staying. He saw Jazz playing with some of the children of the tribe while Sam and Tucker watched. He sat by them.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked.

"We find more people that are _alive_." Danny said, "We've been here long enough and despite how much we like it here," he sighed, "We belong with our own kind." He said. "We don't actually belong here."

"And what if we don't find anyone?" Tucker asked.

"That's gotta be _someone_." Danny said, "We can't just _happen_ to be the last four people in the world."

Sam nodded. "True." She said and stood up, ""Well, let's get going?"

"Get going where?" Jazz asked.

"We gotta find more survivors. It'd do us some good if we were around other people." Tucker explained.

"And these aren't people?" Jazz asked and gestured to the tribe behind her.

"Around other humans." Frostbite said and approached them. "However, in the off chance that you _don't_ find other people and you can't get to safety, feel free to come back. We will always welcome you as our own." He smiled.

Armed with new weapons, and fully equipped with medical supplies and anything else they may need for their trek, they were driven in one of the cruisers the tribe had by Frostbite and taken to a portal they all agreed on. The portal, when it opened, showed a neighborhood street labeled 'Erie'.

"And this is in Arizona?" Sam asked.

"I'm sure the climate change would be nice." Tucker said.

Frostbite chuckled, "Oh, I sense a decent enough energy from this one."

"So do I." Danny said, "It's about May?" he only felt the heat emitted from the portal. He slapped the back of his neck as he felt something prick it. "It's humid."

"June." Frostbite corrected, "It's even worse."

Danny looked at the others hesitantly. "Are we ready for this?"

"As ready as we'll ever be."


	2. Chapter 1: Lost

The area was strewn with corpses of all types. Smokers, Hunters, Boomers and even a Witch or a Tank here or there. The sidewalks and streets were almost painted with blood. They stood for the longest time, unsure as to do. One or two zombies stood around the calm neighborhood lined with oleander bushes on each side. One particular group of pink oleander was the group they stumbled out of from the ghost portal. Danny took a deep, shaking, hesitant breath and turned to the others.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked before he had a chance to speak.

"Well, I was going to ask you guys what you think we should do." He confessed, "Obviously there's people here." He said.

"Right." Jazz nodded.

"How about one of us picks a direction?" Tucker suggested, "And we'll just take turns."

"We avoid major roads." Jazz said firmly.

"Sounds good." Danny said, "There may be nothing to shoot here, but who knows what sort of progress they made."

"Okay. So which way first?" Sam asked.

Danny looked down one street, finding a blinking yellow light at one end. Then he looked down the other side, finding what looked like the fencing to a field at a school. "There's a school down that way." He said, "But there's a stop light going the other way."

Tucker sighed, "Who's gonna pick first?"

"Well, this was your idea. So it should be you." Sam said.

"I'd say we go toward the school." He said, "We just stay on the other side of the street from it."

"Let's go, then." Jazz said and began walking.

They studied their surroundings, first a church on their right, then the rest of the buildings around them were houses. "We should check a couple of these houses for supplies." Danny announced.

"Good idea." Sam nodded.

"This house here." Tucker pointed.

"Fenced-in, massive bushes so you can't see in or out, massive house-"

"Drug dealers." Danny cut off Jazz. "They _have_ to have a gun."

"Or two." Sam said, "What makes you so sure they were drug dealers?" Sam asked.

"Why else would they hide their house like this?" he asked.

"True." They rounded the corner to see the front of the house and found a gate to the driveway.

Danny took a deep breath and pushed open the gate, hearing an alarm go off. He jumped and instantly tried to close it. He glanced over and found infected running from each direction at them. He instantly abandoned the idea of closing the gate and started shooting.

"Should've known they'd have an alarm on their gate." Jazz teased and fired.

"Shut up. I don't see you suggesting what they'd have." He snapped.

Sam turned slightly and shot to the left, glancing back the other way to see what was incoming. She finally heard a click, indicating that she'd run out of ammunition for her SMG and forcing her to switch to her halberd. She glanced over and found that it was just Jazz and Tucker shooting. She did a double-take. Only Jazz and Tucker? She turned around and found Danny practically glued to the wall with a Smoker's tongue tightly wrapped around his body and neck. He struggled weakly before closing his eyes and going limp. "Danny!" she ran to his side and hit the tongue with the halberd, catching him as he fell forward. She quickly pulled the tongue off of him and carefully laid him down. In the back of her mind, she heard the firing stop. All she could hear was silence.

"What happened?" Tucker asked.

Sam studied the bruises forming lightly around Danny's neck that went into hiding in the collar of his shirt. "Smoker." She breathed. She held him closer and put her ear to his chest, finding that his heart beat faintly. It was all she could hear. She froze, "He's not breathing…" she gasped. She quickly laid him down, however, before she was able to do anything, he gasped loudly and coughed. He rolled over and almost gagged.

"Danny?" Jazz leaned over to look at his face.

He panted and stared at the ground for what felt like too long. He refocused his vision and took a deep breath. Their voices were muffled to him as they spoke either amongst themselves or to him. He shook his head and rested on his knees and elbows. His hearing finally became clear. They'd been calling him and asking if he was okay.

Sam touched his shoulder, making him flinch, "Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded and sat on his knees, "I'm okay." He breathed. He stood up.

"Can you even walk?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." he said as he stumbled and caught his sister for support. He sighed, "Okay, my balance is out the window and my head is killing me." He admitted, "But I'll be fine."

"Danny," Jazz started, "Why didn't you use your ghost powers?" she asked.

"I tried." He said, "They weren't working." He said. He looked over across the street and saw the school- a high school, standing amongst the houses and one other church further down the intersecting street. He tried taking a step forward, declaring himself stable and nodding in approval. He looked down each side of the street, "Which way?" he asked.

"Are we just abandoning the idea of more guns in this house?" Sam asked.

"That Smoker's still in there." He grunted and studied the north end of the street. "I see stop lights down there, but barely." Then he looked south, "Stop lights are right there."

"Let's go left, then." Jazz decided. "More houses, more of a chance that we find someone there or we find shelter of our own." She began walking.

Tucker followed close by her side while Danny and Sam trailed behind. Sam glanced over at Danny who rubbed his throat, "You okay?" she asked loud enough for only him to hear.

"That hurt." He said. "And scared me."

She put an arm over his shoulder and walked with him, "You're okay." She whispered.

He nodded, "I know. I just wasn't expecting a Smoker to almost strangle me to death." He looked up, seeing the sky was starting to get dark. "We should find someplace to stay." He announced.

"Let's see what's across the street." Tucker suggested, "I get the feeling we'll find something." He said, leading the others across the street. He glanced up at a sign labeled 'Oakland', "Not here." He shook his head. When they reached a street labeled 'Tulsa' Danny glanced across the street at the next intersection and saw pawn shop next to a convenience store. "Let's try there." He said. "Maybe we'll find something." He walked them the rest of the way down the block, across the street labeled 'Galveston' and realized that the door had been broken down.

"That doesn't look good." Tucker said.

Danny held out his fire axe and hit the door frame with the blade. Two zombies ran out at them but were quickly decapitated just as they ran through the door frame.

"Geez, Danny." Jazz said under her breath.

"What?" he looked at her, "We've been out here for about a week and a half. I've already shot off zombie heads and I saw that through a rifle scope." He explained, "This is the lesser of two evils." He stepped into the store and looked around, "There's five handguns in here, and a bunch of pocket knives." He said. "Who wants what?"

"I say we take one of each." Tucker said.

"Okay." Danny handed each of them one handgun and one pocket knife of their specific color. Tucker's was silver, Sam's was purple and black, Jazz's was a turquoise blue, and Danny's was bright green. He looked around the store, finding nothing else of interest. "Let's check next door for some food." He suggested.

The convenience store was in worse shape than the pawn shop. Shelves where knocked over, bags of food were torn open and scattered about, and the glass in the coolers in the back were shattered. They heard giggling inside.

"Nope." Tucker turned around and walked out of the building, "No Jockeys."

Danny chuckled and quietly ushered the girls out. "Let's keep going." He smiled. He glanced across the street and considered for a moment maybe to check the apartment complex that overlooked the convenience store, Laundromat, pawn shop, and the massive empty lot they walked by, but decided against it and kept walking. They crossed the street again and looked over at an elementary school that sat beside them.

"Well if that's not convenient." Danny said.

"Get out of one school and go to the one right down the street." Tucker agreed.

"I don't think it's a middle school too." Jazz said. "K through six. Unless the high school continues with seventh grade."

They all shrugged and just passed the school calmly. Danny looked back up to the sky and found it was darker out than it was about ten minutes ago. He looked around at all of the houses they passed, scared as to what they were going to do that night for shelter. They've passed a few vans and a couple of SUVs, but all of them were either smashed or overturned. He looked back out to the empty streets and still only found the dead bodies.

"There's really not much to kill out here." Danny noted again. Not a split second later, he regretted saying it.

There was gurgling behind them. Close behind them.

"No…" Danny turned around, finding nothing. "No, no, no…" he search everywhere.

"It's behind the wall." Jazz said quietly. All four of them had turned around. Before they knew it, they were covered in the slime and mentally gagging that they were covered in vomit again.

After another series of 'no' that Danny had muttered. He froze in disgust, "F*ck." He scowled and tried going intangible, finding his powers weren't cooperating. He pulled out his newly acquired handgun and began firing at the incoming infected.

"Damn it, he's in the front yard right here." Jazz cursed.

Danny tried once more to go intangible and still couldn't. He turned and fired at the fat infected that hid behind the small cacti that was planted in the front yard, not that his hiding was very effective. The Boomer exploded and managed to miss everyone with his explosive remains.

Sam knocked back a zombie with her halberd and hit it again with the blade, sending it to the ground with a crack in its head. Then she turned around and came face-to-face with a Shifter. She froze momentarily, then swung the blade at him, lodging the blade into his ribs and getting it stuck.

The Shifter sneered and held the blade into his side, pushing it in further and yanking the blade from Sam's hands. He pulled the weapon out of his ribs and running the other end into Sam's stomach, knowing that the end was pointed. She yelled and grabbed the handle to keep it from going in any deeper.

Danny turned around and shot the Shifter in the back of his head, not knowing that he had stabbed Sam. He gasped after the Shifter fell, "Sam!" he barked and caught her before she fell. He held her close and shot at any of the infected that came close with the exclusion of one or two that kicked his back or his leg, though they were quickly dealt with. He watched for a moment to see anything if anything else was coming. Then he looked back at Sam.

Tucker and Jazz gasped, "What-"

"It was a Shifter." Danny said and held her closer. "Check if this house is safe." He said.

"Danny, a Boomer and a Shifter came out of hiding with this house. The door's destroyed and the windows are gone." Tucker said.

"Find something…" he whispered.

"Jazz, you stay here." Tucker said and ran down the street.

Jazz watched him leave, then looked down at her brother. She knelt by him and brushed Sam's hair back. She looked down at her stomach and studied the wound in her stomach that was who knows how deep. She wrapped an arm around Danny's shoulders and hugged him, "She's going to be okay." She whispered.

Danny had his forehead to Sam's and one hand gripping her hand tightly. He was silent, taking deep, shaking breaths. His eyes closed and his mental stress at max capacity. "We just got here not even an hour ago…" he said quietly.

Jazz was silent, "We didn't know what we were in for when we got here."

"We knew-"

"I found one." Tucker ran back panting. "It's two houses away from this one but it's locked."

Danny looked down at his hand and made it go intangible, finally unable to see his hand, "Now my powers work." He said. He carefully picked up Sam and stood up. "Where is it?" he asked.

"Down this way." Tucker said, "The one on the other side of the fire hydrant."

Danny looked at the house for a moment and ran carefully to the front door. He phased through the door and hesitated before taking another step. The couches in the living room were clean. The counters were clear and the house was unharmed. He carefully laid Sam on the couch and let Jazz and Tucker inside. "We're staying here." He said.

"Well- duh." Tucker scoffed and examined Sam. "The Shifter got her pretty good." He took off his bag that Frostbite had given him and pulled out a first aid kit. He carefully cleaned the wound, glad that there was none of the Boomer puke on her while he was working. "You guys go check the place out. I'll take care of her." He said.

Danny and Jazz hesitantly turned and started exploring the house, which wasn't that big. It had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each room looked as though it house two people each. Considering two people slept in the Queen-sized bed.

"Two adults, two teenagers, and two little kids."

"No kidding." Danny agreed. He turned back and started for the living room, turning left to check the backyard. Finding the area clear, he opened the door and stepped out. There was a big green lawn and a pool beside it. The pool didn't have much water inside, showing the possibility that it was probably being drained when the outbreak hit. He looked just passed the lawn, finding three tall pine trees. He took a deep breath and leaned his forehead on the tree and closed his eyes.

"Danny?"

He turned around and looked at Jazz.

"Are you okay?" she asked and approached him.

He scoffed, "Already stressed out about this place."

She glanced at the bruises around his neck and sighed. "I can imagine."

"I mean- I knew Shifters were smart, but stabbing Sam?"

"I know, Danny. I know." She put her hands on his shoulders. "Things aren't going to get much easier." She admitted. "But the good news is: we _know_ there's people out here. If you'd like, Tucker and I can go find them tomorrow morning and you can stay here to watch Sam." She watched him for a while and had a feeling he didn't like the idea, "Or… something…"

He closed his eyes and leaned against the tree. He sighed. "We'll have to figure something out." He said.

"Hey, guys?" Tucker called.

They looked up at him.

"Uh... She's okay. Danny, she said she wants to see you." He said.

Danny made his way into the house, "Thank you." He said to Tucker before going to Sam's side. "Are you okay?"

"I'll live." She smiled sleepily.

He took her hand, "You're cold."

"I don't really have a lot of blood in me right now." She half-chuckled. He gave her a serious look, making her smirk disappear. She sighed, "I know you're worried. And I'm guessing you're already stressed out." She started, "I'm going to be fine." she said. "I don't even feel it right now."

"Not always a good thing." He said.

"Unless Frostbite packed us painkillers." She smirked.

He laughed.

She smiled, "Danny, if you're stressed out. Why don't you go on a quick flight?"

"Sam, it's dark out. There's zombies everywhere." He said.

"I know. Which is why I say 'flight'. It's not walking, but I'm sure it still clears your head." She said. Then she smiled, "Go ghost."

He smiled and touched his forehead to hers. "Thanks." He whispered. He kissed her forehead and stepped back. The two rings scanned his body and turned him to his ghost half. He fell backwards through the ground and vanished.

**Um... review if you think whether or not I should continue this one. If yes, then I need ideas badly**


	3. Chapter 2: An Empty Pantry

**I don't own Poke'mon, Dollar General, Danny Phantom, L4D2, or Sonic:Drive-in. Obviously. Just felt I should say so. **

Bright daylight shone through the windows of their safe house. Sam ignored the pool fencing bolted to the outside of the windows and stared sleepily at the sky. It felt like a normal day, as though there wasn't a zombie outbreak. She missed days like that. She'd be walking with Danny and Tucker to the movies or the park, or even chasing Danny and some ghost he's fight down the street. She might even stare out the window in class and completely ignore Lancer's lecture on god knows what kind of literature he's introducing. She turned her head and saw Tucker lying on the floor wrapped in a light blue comforter decorated with Pokémon, and Jazz lying on the couch with a purple comforter with grey and pink plumes of who-knows-what, both sound asleep. She looked around and sat up. She flipped the dark purple, flowered comforter off of her lap and took a deep breath, remembering that they were fighting through a zombie apocalypse and one of them got smart and cost her the halberd. She stood up carefully and stepped over Tucker. She walked down the halls and checked the bedrooms, furrowing her brows along the way and finally checking the bathrooms. Finding them empty. "Where is he?" she asked herself. She walked back out to the living room, "Guys? Did Danny come back last night?" she asked, loud enough to wake someone up.

Tucker rolled over and squinted, "No." he said, "He went flying, right?" he asked.

"He did. I just thought he'd be back by now." Sam said.

Tucker wrestled out of the blanket and put his glasses back on, "Maybe he found people and stayed with them." he suggested.

"Wouldn't he have come back here first and gotten us?"

He sighed and stood up, stretching his arms and back, "I don't know." He yawned and walked her back to the couch, "You shouldn't be up." He said, "Lie down, I'll go-"

The was knocking at the door, "Guys?" Danny's voice asked from the other side. "Can someone let me in?"

Tucker jumped up and opened the door, "Damn, man, you look like you got hit by a Tank." He gasped.

"Danny!" Sam gasped, seeing Danny limp in with scrapes on the side of his face and down the corresponding arm. "What happened?"

"I crashed." He said flatly, "My powers gave out while I was about seventy feet in the air." he sat down next to Sam.

Jazz rolled over and fell off the couch with a sharp, short shriek. She sat up and looked around, gasping at Danny, "What happened to your face?"

"He crashed." Sam said, "His powers gave out while he was flying."

"I skidded on the street and had to hide somewhere." He explained. "That's why I didn't come back." He said guiltily.

"Where did you hide?" Sam asked.

"Under a truck. A Hunter apparently had the same idea so I kicked it." He said.

Tucker sighed and stood up, heading for the kitchen, "I hope there's food here." He said and began digging around.

Jazz got up and grabbed her bag of medical supplies sitting on Danny's other side and cleaning the scrapes, "Luckily these aren't too bad." She commented.

"So you didn't find people?" Sam asked sadly.

He shook his head and sighed, "Not a trace."

"There's nothing here." Tucker complained, "Not even canned food." He said.

Jazz's stomach growled, "We should go find food."

"How did Frostbite _not_ pack us food?" Sam asked.

"Uh- oh…" Danny paused, "Ghosts don't need to eat, so it probably didn't occur to him." He said.

"Ghosts don't bleed either and he gave us medical supplies." Tucker pointed out.

"Because we went to Frostbite in horrible condition. We _needed_ supplies."

"Let's just not argue about it." Jazz waved her hands, "Either way, we have no food or water."

"No, the water works." Tucker corrected, "So does the electricity. If we can find anything, I could probably cook it." He said.

Danny paused, "The front flowerbed of this place has peppers and lettuce for some reason."

"Good enough for me." Sam said.

"Not us. We don't eat veggies." Tucker crossed his arms.

"No, Tucker, _you_ don't eat veggies." Danny corrected.

"Whatever! Let's just go out and find food." Jazz snapped and waved her hands again, "Tucker and I will go. Danny, you stay here with Sam." She instructed.

"Sounds good." He said.

"Let's check the backyard first. Since Danny found veggies in the front yard and there's plants in the planters back there." Jazz said. "We'll just pick them when we get back." She said and picked up her tactical shotgun from the table.

"Hey, if you see my halberd out there, can you grab it for me?" Sam asked.

"Sure thing." Tucker said and retrieved his M-16. "We'll be back." He said and followed Jazz out the door.

"Be safe." Sam said.

"Good luck." Danny called after them.

Jazz closed the door and looked at the lettuce and peppers in the planter, "We forgot to check the back.

"We'll check when we get back." Tucker shrugged and started down the street

"Hey, you don't think Danny finds it weird that we're together now, right?" Jazz asked.

"I don't think he'd mind." Tucker shrugged, "Just as long as you weren't dating Dash or something."

"Or Johnny 13." She said.

"That pissed him off so bad." Tucker chuckled.

"I should've listened." She confessed.

"Yes, you should've." He laughed.

She stopped as they passed an ambulance. The back doors stood open.

"Maybe there's supplies in here." Tucker climbed in, ignoring a body that laid across the way and sat against the wall. Tucker looked around, "Nothing. It looks like they used it all on whoever they were operating on before."

Jazz looked on the stretcher and found the restraints were broken and a trail of blood led outside.

"Hey!" Tucker exclaimed, "A defibrillator." He said.

"Let's hold onto it." Jazz said.

Tucker grew quiet.

"You never know." She said, "We almost had to resort to CPR with Danny."

"Right." Tucker nodded and handed her the device, "You hold onto it." He said, "I don't trust myself to keep track of it."

"Okay." She took it and put it in her bag. "Let's keep going. Did you see any sort of food in here?" she asked.

"Uh-uh." He shook his head and climbed out. "Maybe there's a fast food place here." He said and continued down the street, coming across a major road.

Jazz looked down both sides. "Wow… there's nothing here." She marveled, seeing how barren the street was, even of cars.

"Maybe the military cleared this place out?" Tucker asked.

"Maybe." She shrugged, "It's a good possibility." She looked around to try and find anything that might have food. "There's that place." She pointed at a small convenience store on the corner of a small block, "Or we could try the Sonic right next to it."

"We'll try the Sonic." Tucker said, "If anything, they'd have patties frozen in the freezer." He said, "And hot dogs, and maybe some chicken."

"Do you know how cook _any_ of that stuff?" she asked.

"At a house, no." he shook his head, "I worked at Nasty Burger for a little bit, remember?" he approached the small building, taking care as to not trip over any overturned chairs on the patio. He tapped the glass for a moment and peered inside the window.

"What are you waiting for?" Jazz asked.

"If there's an alarm in there attached to the windows, I don't want to set it." He said.

She thought for a moment, "Hey, can't your PDA-"

"It's dead. The battery died when we were at Frostbite's." he explained. He went around to one of the doors and gave it a push, finding that it opened.

"I guess they didn't have time to lock up, come the apocalypse." Jazz shrugged.

He smiled and held the door open with his back, "After you."

She smiled and stepped inside, finding that the inside of the building wasn't as trashed as she expected. She expected cups and fries strewn everywhere and at least a machine knocked over, but everything was actually empty. She followed Tucker to the back, "Let's just hope there's something here." She said.

He stepped into the fridge and gasped, "Jalapeño poppers!" he exclaimed and grabbed two bags. Then he looked around and chuckled, "That's the only thing here."

"Those are Cheddar Peppers." She corrected and went around and checked the freezer.

Tucker glanced at the bag for a moment, "Even better." He marveled and hugged the bags.

She opened the freezer and found nothing. "Someone must've staked this place out." She said, "There's nothing in the freezer."

"Okay then." Tucker said, "I can settle with these." He smiled and stuffed the bags into Jazz's bag.

Jazz tried keeping her balance and even used the doorframe to keep from falling backward. "I'll just have a salad with Sam." She said. She followed Tucker out the back door and looked to her right, "Let's check there." She suggested.

"Okay." He said eagerly. Then he paused, seeing how destroyed the front doors were. "No… let's check somewhere else." He said, "I don't trust it."

"Come on, it's a dollar store." She rolled her eyes.

"No." he shook his head, "I get a bad vibe from that place."

"Okay." Jazz shrugged, "Let's just keep going then."

As they walked down the street in silence, Jazz heard a yelp from behind her. She quickly turned around and found Tucker missing. "Tucker?" she called. Then she pulled out her shotgun and stood defensively, "Tucker! This isn't funny!" she shouted. Then she swallowed hard, "Tucker?" her voice broke.

There was a shriek before a Hunter pushed her down from behind and began tearing at her back, "Tucker!" she screamed, "Help! Do something!" she shrieked, unable to do anything.

Just as things were starting to go black, there was several gunshots and the clawing stopped, instead, only dead weight kept her down. When the weight was removed, she looked up fearfully and locked eyes with Tucker.

"Are you okay?" he asked and helped her up.

"Ow…" she groaned.

He looked down and picked up the bag. The straps were destroyed. He sighed and held onto the handle and pulled her arm over his shoulder, "Let's get you home." He said. "I think we have enough food."

"Where were you?" she asked weakly.

"A Smoker got me and pulled me between a couple of cars." He explained. "Sorry."

"Just as long as you're okay." She smiled.

He returned the smile and kissed her head.

Danny and Sam sat on the couch next to each other and stared at the ceiling. "They're not going to find any meat." Sam said.

"Yeah, but they're gonna find something." Danny shrugged.

She looked over at him, "You look tired." She said.

"I didn't get much sleep last night." He said, "Asphalt is very uncomfortable."

"Good thing you found that charger." Sam looked over at the bundled up cable that sat next to him.

"No kidding." Danny nodded. "Tucker will be so thrilled." He said.

"What about the voice?" Sam sneered.

He thought for a while, "Destroy the charger. He'll never know."

There was pounding on the door that made their blood run cold. Danny jumped up, grabbed his axe and checked the door.

"Danny! Just let us in! Jazz is hurt." Tucker's voice barked from the other side.

Danny quickly opened the door and helped support Jazz. "What happened?" he asked.

"Hunter." Tucker said, "It jumped on her when a Smoker got me."

Danny laid Jazz on the couch and looked at her back. He grabbed his medical supplies and started cleaning her back. "Where was this?" Danny asked.

"In front of a set of apartments just passed the Dollar General." Tucker dug through the bag and pulled out the Cheddar Peppers. He then set the defibrillator on the table. "Found jalepeno poppers." He said.

"Oh, really?" Danny glanced at him for a moment, then went back to cleaning Jazz's back.

"We found a defibrillator, too." Jazz said sleepily.

"Good." Danny started patching up her back, "Never know when we'll need it." He finished her back, "Get some sleep." He said.

Sam had stepped out to the backyard and the front yard the collect some vegetables for a salad.

After food was prepared, Danny, Sam and Tucker sat and ate silently. Tucker ate just some Cheddar Peppers, Sam and just some salad, and Danny ate some of both. Sam watched Danny for a while without him noticing. Although they were faint, Danny still had the bruises around his neck from the Smoker attack the day before. But Tucker didn't have them from the Smoker attack maybe just five minutes ago. She couldn't tell if it was just because he was darker and she couldn't see them, or the Smoker didn't that tight of a grip on him.

"Hey, Tucker, I found a charger for the PDA." Danny said.

"Oh, awesome." Tucker dug around in his pockets, "Oh no…" he panicked a little, "I must've dropped it somewhere."

"Maybe the Smoker made you drop it?" Sam suggested.


	4. Chapter 3: Still Empty

~Once again, I do not own the Sonic: Drive-In. It's just a reference~

"Danny, what are we doing out here?" Sam asked.

"I really don't believe that all there was out here was a couple bags of Cheddar Peppers and a defibrillator." He said in a low tone, "That and I have a strong feeling that we should be out here." He explained, walking past the Sonic: Drive-In that Jazz and Tucker had passed.

"Like what?" she gave him a look.

"Something big." He said, "Important." He muttered.

"Danny, that doesn't seem like a solid enough reason." She gave him a stern, disapproving look.

A deep ragged cough snapped their attention to a small group of cars on the side of the street. A green cloud of smoke rose from behind the pile and gave away a Smoker's position. When the Smoker coughed again, he stepped out from behind the cars and started running, his long tongue oozing a reddish-brown blood along the way.

Danny rose his rifle and shot the Smoker in the head, stopping the zombie's path and making him drop dead. "That thing just snapped off his own tongue…" he noted.

"How can you tell?" Sam asked, "Because it was still bleeding?" the comment came out as sarcastic.

He gave her a look, "Yeah. I've never seen that before." He carefully approached the pile.

"What are you doing?" she asked in shock, but not loud enough to attract any unwanted attention, "You're gonna go straight to a Smoker's hiding spot?" she asked.

He looked at her, "It's a pile of maybe five cars?" he guessed, "It's not like there's a Tank back there." He shrugged and went behind the pile, Sam close behind.

What they found behind the car was more than they had anticipated. Not a Tank, not another Smoker, but Tucker. Lying on his back staring wide-eyed at the sky blankly through shocked eyes. His skin was pale, and it was clear he'd been there too long. The two knelt by him and pulled off the tongue that had kept him constricted. Danny looked at Sam in fear and slipped his hand in Tucker's right pocket, finding the PDA that they thought they were missing. "Is this reason enough…?" Danny barely forced out.

Sam pressed her fingers to the side of his neck, feeling no pulse. She exhaled sharply and tried to fight back tears, however failing. "Danny… then who's with Jazz?" she asked.

A new level of fear rose in Danny's chest. He dropped his bag, "Try and revive him, I'll be right back!" he jumped up and ran off. His heart was pounding, and his breaths were heavy. They'd encountered another Shifter and they didn't even know it. He approached the house they had taken shelter in and dove through the window while going intangible, grateful that his powers were cooperating again. He coated his fist with ice and pinned the imposter to the wall separating the kitchen and hallway.

"Danny! What are you doing?" Jazz shrieked, shocked to suddenly see her brother barrel through the house and pin who she thought was his best friend to the wall, all in one swift motion.

"Yeah, man, what's your problem?" the irritated teen asked under Danny's grip.

"Jazz, this isn't Tucker. The 'real' Tucker is by a pile of cars with Sam." He paused, then threw an ice-covered fist at his opponent, sending the Shifter to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"I should've made my move by now…" the Shifter growled, "Let me guess, that kid's dead. Isn't he?" he looked back up at him and wiped the corner of his mouth free of blood.

There was another thud as Sam pressed the paddles to Tucker's bare chest, her body shaking violently, finding that Tucker still hadn't responded. She sniffled and rubbed the paddles one more time, "Please, Tucker…" she whimpered and shook her head, she got back up on her knees and pressed the paddles on his chest one last time, making his body jolt up, offended by the sudden voltage once again.

A moment seemed too long. The long, painstaking pause that followed, fear and suspense mixed and collided into a whirlpool that created a pit in Sam's stomach, threatening to take her heart down. The silence seemed to be too loud and everything seemed darker.

However, his sudden intake of air was louder and brought back light. He blinked and coughed hard. He flipped over to face the ground and gagged, spilling nothing due to an empty stomach. He was jerked forwards into a hug by the goth. "Sam?" he coughed. He looked around drowsily and found the defibrillator lying next to Sam, "Was I…?" he felt her hug him tighter. "Ow… Sam…" he grunted.

She loosened her hug, but still held him.

"So… what happened?" he asked, "Where's Jazz and Danny?"

"Jazz is back at the house." She explained and pulled away, "She came back with you. Or at least we thought she did." She said, "It was a Shifter. Danny ran back to help Jazz."

He nodded and took a deep, scratchy breath. "And that defibrillator?"

Sam looked at it for a while, "I'm glad you and Jazz found it." She said.

He sighed, "Me too."

Danny ran up to them, completely out of breath, "Tucker, thank god…" he dropped to his knees and hugged him, "Thought we lost you." He sat back, "Jazz is worried sick. We gotta get you back to the house." He said and forced himself back to his feet.

"Relax, dude." Tucker said, "Don't need two of us passing out from lack of air."

Danny gave Tucker a tired look. Then he chuckled, able to tell that Tucker was taking his near-death experience lightly, as Danny usually did. He held out a hand and helped Tucker to his feet, pulling an arm over his shoulder. "Let's go." He said.

Sam picked herself off the ground and supported Tucker's other side. Danny kept a skeptical eye out for anything that may run at them, but- remembering the odd circumstance they were under- he sighed and crossed the street with Sam and Tucker.

"Danny? You okay?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah." Danny nodded, "Just paranoid." He said, "You scared us."

Tucker nodded, "I'm sorry." He said guiltily.

"Don't apologize." Sam nudged him, "It wasn't your fault. We're just glad you're okay." She said.

He smiled.

"We're all we have left." Danny said, "We need to keep it that way."

"If there were _any_ changes at all, it'd be in how many people we've added to this group." Sam said.

Danny agreed and pushed the door open.

"So what'd you do with the Shifter?"

"He's dead." Danny said, still slightly out of breath. "Let's not worry about him."

"Sounds good." Sam said and plopped onto the couch after they sat Tucker next to Jazz.

Danny found himself on the grey chair on the edge of the living room, staring at the ceiling.

"Do we have anything left for food?" Tucker asked.

"No." Danny said bitterly. "That stupid Shifter ate your share of the Cheddar Peppers."

Tucker groaned agitatedly. "I hate the zombie apocalypse." He complained, lying in Jazz's arms.

"I'm pretty sure everyone does." Jazz said.

Danny watched everyone for a while. Seeing that none of them were really in any condition to do any travelling. Granted the house was a great shelter, running water, working power, they still needed food. He sighed. He was in better condition than everyone else, for once. It was always him that was in poor condition. Then again, whenever he was in poor condition, he jumpstarted his adrenaline and kept fighting. "I'm gonna go out back." He stood up and went out the back door. He sat on the edge of the pool and thought for a while.

"Danny?" Sam asked and sat by him, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know." He said, his eyes not leaving the pool.

"Stressed out?" she asked.

He nodded. "We have to go and look for food." He said. "But nobody's in the condition to be going anywhere." He sighed, "I'm thinking _I_ should go out." He said.

"No way." Sam said firmly.

Danny looked at her.

"I'd rather starve and wait until we're recovered a bit more than to send you out there by yourself."

He chuckled, "What- you're saying I can't take care of myself?" he asked.

"No offense, Danny, but you don't know what to do without your powers."

"Earth to Sam," he waved his hand in front of his face, "I did manage to kill a Tank without my powers."

"That Tank committed suicide." Sam said, "Practically. He _wanted_ you to kill him. But think about it. That Witch? You let her phase through you. The Bulldozer? You overshadowed a Tank to take that beast down. Dash beat the shit out of you. Could've killed you." She said. "Did you use your powers at all?" she asked.

"No." he said.

"Well, if that's a fight without your powers, then I don't want to find out what's out here if every time someone leaves the house get ambushed. Who knows? There could be _more_ special infected out here that we've never seen before."

Danny sunk. She was right. "We still need food, though." He said. "So what do we do?" he asked. "We can eat the veggies here, but Tucker would refuse."

Sam sighed, "Well- Tucker can just suck it up." She said. "If veggies are all we have, then veggies are what we're gonna eat."

Danny chuckled.

A gunshot rang through the air, distant, but they still heard it. Sam snapped her attention toward the noise. "You hear that?" she asked.

"Yeah." Danny nodded. He stood up and looked around for someplace to climb onto the roof. But found nothing. He tried going ghost, starting the rings around his waist and starting them around his body, thankfully transforming him. He gave Sam a brief look and kicked off the ground. He hovered to the roof and looked around. Hearing more of the gunshots but finding nothing. He began looked more frantically, going invisible to hide himself. However, he still found nothing. He sighed and began flying back to the house, seeing that he was flickering back into view. "Oh no…" he gasped, seeing the rings begin to form around his middle involuntarily. When he finally found that the jumpsuit vanished and he was wearing his newish red shirt, he found himself falling, "Shit!" he yelled

Sam watched him fall, "No, Danny!" she screamed, there was then a splash beside her as he crash landed in the pool behind her. She turned around and watched him surface with eyes as wide as baseballs. "You okay?" she asked.

He looked up at her, then turned to see how close to the concrete wall he was. "I almost hit the wall." He held the back of his head and waded through the water, climbing out and onto the pool deck.

"Let's go inside and check if there's any towels inside." Sam suggested.

"Screw that, I'm taking a shower." Danny said. "Hopefully it's hot water."

Sam nodded, "Did you see anything?" she asked and opened the back door for him.

"No." he shook his head, "But now we know for a fact that there's others out here." He said. "And in this area."

"You guys heard the gunshots, right?" Jazz asked, Tucker was sleeping in her lap.

"Yeah. I couldn't find the source." Danny said bitterly.

Jazz looked at him for a while, "Did you fall into the pool?"

"_Don't_ want to talk about it." He trudged off and found the bathroom. The walls were a sky blue and _Super Mario_ characters littered the walls as well as random mushrooms. There were three bathmats, one as red as Mario's hat, one as green as the warp pipe, and the other just plain grey. Hung on a hook was a Starman-yellow towel. He sighed in relief and pulled off the soaking wet shirt. He dropped it in the sink and stepped off his sneakers, soaking the grey mat below him. He then started the shower and peeled off the rest of his clothes.

In the living room, Jazz sat on the couch laughing.

"What's so funny?" Sam asked, sitting on the couch adjacent to her.

"Did you _not see_ my brother?" she giggled, "Soaked head-to-toe like a cat taking a bath. He looked pissed!"

Sam chuckled, "Well, he was lucky he didn't hit the pool wall. He crash landed." She said, taking the situation a little more seriously, "His powers are failing." She said.

Jazz grew silent. "There has to be a reason as to why that is." She said, "They can't _just_ be failing. There has to be a reason."

Sam thought about all of the possibilities. But none of them made sense. A good possibility was that he was nowhere near a ghost portal, but his powers would've shorted out before. Before she thought about this for too long, she heard the door creak back open and a pair of footsteps hit the wooden flooring. She turned around carefully, trying not to twist her stomach in the wrong way and hurting herself. "Enjoy yourself?" she asked.

"Water was cold." He grumbled and started opening other doors. He was somewhat more immune to the cold, but it still wouldn't have been good if it got him sick or slowed him down more so than before. Which was why he was digging through the closets- he searched for dry clothes to change into so he didn't have to change back into the same, soaking wet clothes he had before. At the moment, he only wore the star-yellow towel around his waist and was looking through the closet directly across the hall from the bathroom, which he found was full of toiletries and cosmetics and whatnot. He sighed and looked to his right, seeing three more doors, one on the same wall, one on the opposing wall, and the other right in between the two. He opened the door on the same wall, finding that it was a deep, grape colored purple. With a black, metal framed bunk bed, where the bottom bed could be changed to a futon couch. There was a black and white desk to the immediate right side of the door, and a black mirror hung on the wall to the left. Beyond the mirror was a tall lamp with a paper shade, and a closet. He then looked at the room further. Girls used to stay in this room, so there was no true guarantee of finding any clothes for guys. He shrugged and tried the closet anyways, finding bras, dresses and slim tank-tops. But much to his surprise, half of the shirts in the closets were large T-shirts that were gender neutral. He found a black shirt with a blue and white print that was clearly a high school shirt. Reading something about 'game day'. He then looked for some pants. To his shock, he found men's pants too. In about his size. There were three pairs- jeans, tan dress pants, and black dress pants. The black dress pants he found with a blue and red work shirt. He chuckled when he checked the small shirt, reading that whoever he was 'borrowing' clothes from worked at the Sonic: Drive-In. He draped the pants over his forearm. "With my luck, I'd find a pair of boxers around here, too." He said, "Maybe it was a brother and- wait, no…" he muttered, "Sister and extreme tomboy." He said.

Sam walked down the hall and found him, "Danny?"

He jumped and almost shook the towel off, catching it before it went any lower than his hip, "Sam!"

She threw her hands up defensively, "Sorry!" she gasped. Then she looked around, "Wow, this room isn't bad."

"Tell me about it." Danny said, fixing the towel, "I found clothes in here that fit me."

"Really?" she asked.

He tugged on the shirt he wore and the pants he found, "These are my size. Girls used to share this room." He said.

"Did you find underwear?" she asked.

He gave her a blank look. "No."

"Well, maybe you'd find some in here." She looked around, "Is there a dresser even in here?" she asked.

"No." he looked around, "But there's that." He pointed at a small set of drawers that would've belonged to children, hidden between the wall and the bunk bed.

"Maybe, then." She said and sat on the bed and checked the top drawer, finding some women's underwear and toys. "What's with all the toys?" she asked, "Looks like they were a drive-thru collector." She pointed out and pulled out a snake-like thing with a scoop-like head, apparently a spoon.

"Uh…" Danny thought a moment, "I did see a Sonic uniform in here." He said. "Maybe she collected the toy for some reason?"

Sam shrugged and kept looking. "Hey! Boxers!" he threw a pair at Danny.

He caught the pair before they hit him in the face, they were primarily green and had oranges on them. "Wow."

"Now, before you have another panic attack of me seeing your junk, I'll leave the room so you can get dressed." She said bluntly and walked out, closing the door behind him.

He turned red at the statement, then quickly got dressed, wincing then he buttoned the pants. He pulled up the side of his new shirt and saw a bruise, "Geez…" he pulled up the shirt higher to see how large the bruise was, but saw it was wrapping around his body. He stepped back and looked in the mirror, seeing the bruise climb up and criss-cross his body to finally gather around his neck. He sighed and pulled his shirt back down and stepped out of the room. He started down the hall back out to the living room. He sat down next to Sam.

"Comfortable?" she asked.

He shrugged.

She looked at him for a while, Jazz had fallen asleep again and Tucker was still asleep. "Now what?" she asked.

"We have to find whoever was the source of those gunshots." Danny said. "They might have food, they'll probably be able to help."

Sam reached an arm around him and squeezed for a hug. "We'll find them." she smiled. "If we heard gunshots, and this area is as dead as it is, then they have to be _living_ somewhere close." She said. "We'll go look for them later, okay?" she suggested.


	5. Chapter 4: Not Alone

**Warning! Self-insert/OC ahead. If you don't like it, then don't burden yourself with it. Some people should know that Chandler, AZ is a real place and the streets used in it _are_ real streets. So doing this in itself should've given a red flag for a SI/OC. Anyway, enjoy. Once again, DLDR.**

"Vincent, come on, hurry and get in the car!" a young woman's voice called.

"Sorry! I'm coming!" a young man, about a year older than the girl stepped out of a door leading to an apartment. He wore his long black hair back in a ponytail and wore a light blue shirt with faded, dirty jeans. He had a shotgun strapped over his shoulder and held a laundry basket full of clothes of several colors and sizes. His eyes were brown and he wore thin-framed glasses.

"Whoa! Don't let the cat out." She gasped upon seeing an orange cat thinking about going out the door. She wore a blue and red shirt and light-colored jeans and her long brown hair in a bun topped with an olive-green hat. Her blue-framed glasses complimented her blue eyes.

"I won't let the cat out." Vincent grumbled, "Buka, back." He snapped.

The cat reluctantly turned around and trotted back into the house, jingling her collar as she ran. The girl sighed.

"Relax, everything's gonna be fine." Vincent reassured her, he leaned over and kissed her, trying not to hit her with the laundry basket.

"Hey- uh… Tacome?" a male, Southern voice called from inside, "Where do you keep the shampoo?" he asked.

"In one of the cabinets in the bathroom." The brunette called, "Try the white box in there." She said.

Vincent walked around her and popped open the trunk in the small, sky-blue car beside Tacome, "Should we grab some veggies while we're over there?" he asked.

"Yeah, and probably water everything, too." She nodded. She got into the car and waited patiently for Vincent to take the passenger seat. She watched the sky for a moment. As soon as Vincent sat down, she leaned toward him, "Go tell Ellis that we're gonna spend the night over there. I don't want to travel after dark."

"What about Jayden?" he asked.

She thought for a while. "Tell Rochelle, then. She'll be discreet about it. Just tell her to tell Jayden that we'll be back after he goes to sleep."

"Okay." Vincent said unsure and went back into the house.

She remained silent. She'd heard gunshots, all seven of her and her group. She watched the street for a while. She felt the car shake slightly.

"You okay?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah…" she shook her head and took the keys from him and started the car.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone's out there." She looked at him.

He looked at her for a while, "Come on…" he took her hand and squeezed it, "Let's go get some laundry done."

Tacome nodded and put the car in drive. As she started driving, she kept the windows rolled down and the stereo off so she could hear what was going on outside. The second she heard a bellow, she slammed on the brakes and watched a Charger run straight in front of the car. "Was that Charger-?"

"Come on!" Vincent jumped out of the car and ran after the Charger.

"Help! Sam!"

Tacome jumped out of the car after putting it in park and ran after Vincent who was now shooting at the Charger. With a final shot to the back of the Charger's head, the Charger dropped dead and began crushing his victim.

"Tacome, help me get this thing off him!" Vincent grunted and began shoving at the Charger.

Tacome stood by him and shoved at the body. When they finally pushed the Charger off, they helped up Danny.

He took a moment to catch his breath and to realize what had happened. He looked up at Vincent and Tacome, "Hey… people." He smiled, then he turned to look passed them, "Sam! People!" he called.

Sam caught up with them, "Danny! Are you okay?" she hugged him tightly.

Tacome looked at Danny for a while, "Are those my work pants?" she asked, "And that's my shirt." She said, "Where'd you get those?"

Sam and Danny looked at them, "This house with some vegetables growing out front." Danny said.

"That's my house." Tacome said, "I thought it was locked." She looked at Vincent, didn't you and Nick lock it last time you were over there?"

"There's more of you?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, five." Vincent nodded.

"Five?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, is it just you two out here?" Tacome asked.

"No, there's two more back at the house." Danny shook his head.

"Well that explains the gunshots we've been hearing." Tacome turned to Vincent.

"No doubt." He agreed.

"We've been hearing gunshots too." Danny said, "We were actually just out looking for the source of them."

Tacome shook her head, "Come on, let's get inside." she led the others back to the car.

Upon entering the house, the four was silent in courtesy to let Jazz and Tucker sleep. "What happened to them?" Tacome said quietly.

"He was revived with a defibrillator this morning." Sam pointed at Tucker.

"And she was attacked by a Hunter before that." Danny pointed at Jazz.

Vincent nodded, seeing the bruises that wrapped around Tucker's neck, then looked at Danny who also had bruises around his neck, he noticed. "Smoker? The same Smoker?" he asked.

"No." Sam said, "They weren't attacked at the same time."

"But the Smoker could've travelled." Vincent pointed out.

Danny shrugged and sat down, "Doubt it. The Smoker that-" he paused, "Wait, you call them Smokers too?" he asked.

Tacome nodded, "Yeah. That's what everyone else called them. The names are kind of easy to figure out." She began sorting the laundry that was salvageable due to zombie encounters.

"So how long have you two been out here?" Sam asked.

Tacome and Vincent looked at each other. "About three years?"

Their eyes widened, "Three years? It's only been about a week since it hit Amity Park." Danny said and looked at Sam.

"The infection started here. Or-" Vincent paused, "In California. It just took a really long time to travel to… where's Amity Park?" he asked.

"Michigan." Danny said.

"Wow. Wait- if it hit Michigan about a week ago, then how'd you guys get here so quickly?" Tacome stopped sorting and looked at them. "Unless you were travelling into the heart of the storm before it hit?"

Danny and Sam looked at each other, unsure if it was safe to tell them the truth. He looked down and let her make the decision. He trusted her, sometimes he'd be so paranoid he'd over think things and the situation may not actually be that bad.

Sam took a deep breath and helped pick up some laundry, "Let's get this taken care of and I'll explain." She said.

Tacome looked at her in confusion, then complied. If things were this complicated, that explaining would require a one-on-one conversation with a stranger, then Tacome debated on whether or not to just save Sam the trouble and say 'forget it' but she wanted to know.

After they closed the back door and they were in the laundry room, which Sam never actually noticed until now.

"So… how? What's going on?" Tacome asked again, loading one load of clothes into the washer.

"Um…" Sam fiddled with her hands, "Danny's not exactly… normal."

"What, does he have some sort of condition or something?" she asked.

"No. Well… kind of." Sam said, "He's…" she didn't know how to put it without sounding crazy, "He has powers." She said, "That are failing, but he still has them. with having these powers, he's met several new kinds of… people, I guess." She said.

"Just cut to the chase." Tacome said flatly, giving her a blank look.

"His ghost powers allow him to travel to the other side. Which is a Ghost Zone." She said, "A friend of ours there, another ghost, helped us travel through a portal to get here."

Tacome gave her a strange look. "So wait, your friend's got ghost powers and there's such a thing as a Ghost Portal?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Sam nodded. "I know- it sounds crazy, but it's the truth." Sam ran her fingers through her hair. "That's how we got here so quickly." She said.

Tacome was still giving her a strange look. "I don't believe it."

"It's how we managed to survive this whole time. He slipped us through a pawn shop, he's almost escaped a Witch- he killed a Bulldozer!" Sam said, trying to redeem her supposed farfetched story.

Tacome snapped a glare at her, "You don't lie about Bulldozers." She growled, standing up to be slightly taller than her. "You can't kill a Bulldozer and that's fact. It's damn near impossible."

"But he did." Sam said, not letting her intimidate her. "He overshadowed a Tank and killed the Bulldozer as a Tank. You've got to believe me. It's the truth. His parents were ghost hunters who always had new inventions and they built a portal. It wasn't working, so I suggested that Danny went in there to see was wrong and he accidentally turned on while he was inside. He got shocked and his DNA was fused with ghost DNA. He's had ghost powers since!" she said, desperate at this point to get Tacome to believe her, "It's how we were able to get into this house. I was hurt and this was the only house intact, so we tried here. It _was_ locked. But Danny phased me through the wall. He's half ghost."

Tacome rolled her eyes and started the washer, "If I see this kid's powers, then I'll believe you. It's just not possible. If he's half ghost, then that'd mean that he's technically partially dead." She said, "Let me see these powers and I'll believe you." She said firmly.

Sam nodded and walked inside nervously, motioning for Danny to go to her.

He got up as though he was in trouble.

"She wants to see. She won't believe me otherwise." Sam said.

Danny looked over and saw Tacome with her arms crossed. He sighed and came into full view, standing up straight. At this moment, he hoped that his powers would fail as he let the rings scan his body.

Tacome's eyes widened and her jaw dropped to see that Sam was indeed telling the truth. "G-ghost powers." She stepped back.

Danny furrowed his brows and grabbed his head.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, knowing something was wrong.

"My head's spinning." He grunted and looked at her. He was paler than normal in his ghost form and had slight rings under his eyes.

"God, you look terrible." Sam said.

"So…" Tacome stammered, "You _did_ kill a Bulldozer?" she asked.

He looked back up at her and nodded, leaning against Sam and changing back to his human form. He looked back at his hands.

Sam looked back at him, seeing that he was still pale, but not nearly as bad as before. "What was that?"

Danny stood back on his own, "I don't know. Is it possible for my ghost half to get sick?" he asked. "That's what it felt like." He said.

Tacome was at a loss for words. There was a half-ghost staying in her house. "And this happened because of your parents?" she asked.

"Yeah." Danny nodded.

"Now do you believe me?" Sam asked.

Tacome nodded, "Yeah, now I do."

Sam sighed in relief. "Thank you."

"It's gonna take quite a bit of explaining for Vincent. But then again, he might get this right off the bat." She said and walked inside, then stopped, "Why are you wearing my clothes, by the way?" she asked, pointing at the high school shirt that Danny wore.

"I fell in the pool." Danny said, "My clothes got soaked."

Tacome nodded, "Okay."

"Hey, you're the Sonic employee." He pointed out, seeing the small logo embroidered on her shirt. "I saw the other shirt in the closet."

She glanced down at her shirt, "Yeah, I am. Was. The outbreak happened when I was working." She explained, "Pretty much everyone I worked with got evacuated. I'm sure." She said.

"Except you." Sam said.

Tacome sighed and sat down in one of the patio chairs, "I would've been evacuated. But there wasn't any more room left for me or my fiancé." She said. "So we stayed here."

"Just… surviving?" Danny asked and sat in another chair.

Sam sat on a bar stool and listened carefully.

"What choice did we have? There wasn't enough room for us, so we couldn't get evacuated. But we killed plenty of time and zombies. It's almost safe to walk down the street without getting eaten." She said, "Vincent and I killed zombies and Witches, Tanks, Chargers, so many that we lost count. Now it only a matter of 'how many zombies did you kill today?' or 'hey, did you see Saundra?"

"Saundra?" Sam asked, "Who's that?

"One of the meanest people we knew. And a Witch." She said, "She always roams, never cries, and never fails at sneaking up on you." She warned, "She's got black hair and several tattoos on her arms and legs. If you kill her, you are God." She said. "She'll even kill another zombie. I've seen her slaughter a Hunter. I actually felt bad for him."

"Geez." Sam cringed, then saw how tense Danny was about talking about this Witch. "If she never cries, then how do we hear her coming?" Sam asked.

"She is _always_ growling." Tacome said. "If you come across this Witch, _run_." She advised sternly. "It's bad enough to try and outrun a regular. But even _try_ to outrun _this_ Witch, good luck to you."

Danny shook his head, "So you said there are others. Where are they?" he asked.

"In an apartment back on Ray." Tacome said, "They'll be fine. They've been with us for two years." She explained.

Danny nodded and coughed, "I'm gonna go lie down." he stood up, "I'm starting to feel light-headed." He explained and walked back inside.

Tacome watched him leave, "What's with him?"

"His mom turned into a Witch and killed his dad." Sam said, "He saw what had happened to his dad and was scared of Witches since then." Sam explained. "His mom tried to kill him and his sister."

"He's got a sister?" Tacome asked.

"Yeah, the redhead in the living room." Sam pointed behind her.

Tacome nodded, "Okay, I see the resemblance." So… how long has your boyfriend had his ghost powers?" she asked.

"A couple years. He got them when we were fourteen." Sam answered simply.

"Dinner!" Vincent's voice called from the kitchen.

"Come on, let's get something to eat." Tacome pat Sam's back.


	6. Chapter 5: Head-Splitting

**Sorry for any wait, guys, I had writer's block something fierce and it kept me from finishing the chapter. So... here it is! I only own Vincent (technically my fiance does), Tacome and Jayden. I don't own DP or L4D2. Enjoy!**

The following morning, Danny opened his eyes and felt as though a shovel hit him in the face, the pain vibrating and rattling his head, allowing nausea to churn through his body. He rolled over on the couch carefully and pulled the blanket over his head. He and Tucker had spent the night on the couches in the living room while Jazz and Sam were given permission to stay in the purple room with the bunk beds. He took a deep breath and tried concentrating to force away the headache, but had no such luck. He groaned and grabbed his head.

"Danny? You okay man?" Tucker looked up, seeing Danny's huddled, blanketed form on the couch, his bare feet barely peeking out from under the comforter. He sat up and put a hand on his shoulder, "Dude, you okay?"

"My head hurts…" his muffled voice complained.

Tucker looked down and thought for a while. He straightened up and walked off toward the master bedroom. He knocked on the door, "Vince? Tacome? Where are the washcloths?" he asked.

The door opened, showing Vincent shirtless and with messy hair. Despite his vision being blurry, he was barely able to see Tacome lying on the bed behind him, also shirtless, but luckily facing away from them and covering her chest with a blanket. "What?" Vincent asked.

"Uh- washcloth?" Tucker repeated. He was tired and knew Vincent was just as tired as he was.

"Hall closet across from the bathroom." He said sleepily and pointed to a door in the hallway behind Tucker.

"Ah, thanks." He waved and turned around to the hall closet. After he retrieved an aqua blue-colored washcloth, he went to the kitchen sink and soaked it with hot water, but not hot enough to burn him. He wrung out the washcloth and handed it to Danny, "Here, put this on the back of your neck." He said, "It should help."

Danny's hand poked out of the blanket and took the cloth, then his other arm flipped the rest of the blanket off his head, causing him to pause and wince. He forced open an eye and squinted at the warm rag. He carefully put the rag around the back of his neck and relaxed, "Thank you." He said.

Tucker sat down, "Don't worry about it." He said and laid back, "After spending several hours in front of a computer six inches away from my face, I was _bound_ to get a headache. It's something my mom always did for me." He said, then sighed, "I wonder how mom and dad are doing…" he pondered.

Danny sunk a little bit, he wasn't sure if Tucker _or_ Sam's parents escaped the apocalypse. He only knew that his _didn't_. He just wanted to assume that they were okay. They had no real sure way of knowing except to get evacuated themselves and the chance of finding them would _still_ be slim. He then heard snoring behind him and realized that Tucker had fallen asleep again.

Tacome walked out into the living room fully clothed and looked at the couches, seeing that Danny and Tucker had both fallen back to sleep. She nodded and went out back, finishing the last load of laundry before she and Vincent were going to go back to the apartment. She'd explained Danny's powers to Vincent the night before as they were going to bed and discovered that he was a _little_ surprised. She sighed and remembered how sick Danny had gotten in his ghost form, and how confused and concerned they were. Getting sick in the zombie apocalypse was the last thing they were going to need. She then heard growling. She gasped and ran back inside, grabbing the first weapon she could find, which just happened to be a naginata that sat next to the door. She peered out the window and surely enough, a Witch was walking by the house, holding her head and growling viciously. Tacome stared out the window and paid no mind over the fact that she hovered right over Danny.

"What the- whoa!" Danny yelped before Tacome slapped a hand over his mouth. She glanced at him then looked outside.

"It's Saundra." She said.

He carefully sat up and froze upon the sight of the Witch, her black hair draped over her shoulders, a white t-shirt clearly oversized on her and a pair of dark blue shorts. Her claws and body coated in blood. She stopped momentarily and looked over at the front of the house, towards the window that belonged to Tacome's old bedroom.

Tacome jumped and ran down the hall. He heard her swing open the door and carefully wake up the two girls, but his eyes never left Saundra. She approached the wall, then charged. The following screams and shouts were nightmarish. It sounded almost like a dog fight where just one dog was clearly winning.

Jazz and Sam made their way out into the living room trembling. Tucker had heard the commotion and woke up to see what was going on. He was only allowed at the spot beside Danny by the window. After a few more seconds, there was silence. Saundra walked off covered in fresh blood and growling. The five watched her leave and walk down the street and turn the corner.

"_That's_ Saundra?" Sam asked.

Tacome only nodded.

Before long another vehicle pulled up to the house. Out stepped two adults, one only slightly tanned and wearing a tight blue t-shirt with a white fishing lure logo and the other paler with a brown-striped Polo. They walked out in front of the house and went to the spot where Saundra had attacked.

"Who's that?" Jazz asked.

Tacome stepped out the front door, "Hey, guys, we're okay." She said, "That was just another zombie."

"You never know." The one with the fishing lure shrugged, "We heard Saundra attack from the house and came right over. Wanted to make sure y'all were okay." He said, his accent was heavily southern.

"Your kid's worried about you." The paler one said, "We wanted to bring him over, but decided against it. Just in case Saundra _did_ get one of you." The two men walked in the front door and looked at the four new teens sitting on the couches, "Hey, you found more people."

There was a loud yawn walking down the hall, "Have a little more faith in us, guys." Vincent said. "We know better than to let _Saundra_ of all people get to us." He said and scratched the back of his neck.

"Who are these guys?" the southern one asked, "Where'd they come from?"

"You know those gunshots we've been hearing?" Tacome asked.

"Oh…" the one in the polo nodded.

"Ah, well…" the southern one chuckled, "I'm Ellis, and this here's Nick." He introduced.

"I'm Jazz…" the redhead said sleepily, "This is Sam. That's Tucker, and that's my brother, Danny." She pointed at the respective teens.

"Pleasure to meet all of you." Ellis lifted his hat slightly.

"How long have you been out here?" Nick asked.

"Um…" Danny looked at Tucker, "Two days?"

"At least out here in Arizona." Tucker said.

"Where are you from?"

"They got over here from Michigan through a ghost portal because he has ghost powers and has connections." Tacome summarized.

"Still cool, by the way." Vincent held up a hand to high-five Danny.

Danny high-fived him and looked down nervously.

Nick and Ellis exchanged confused glances, "Uh? Come again?"

Danny rolled his eyes and transformed, causing the two grown men to jump and stare in shock. He looked at them with green eyes before doubling over and coughing.

"Danny!" Sam knelt by him and pat his back, "What's wrong?"

"I- don't know…" he said between coughs. Then he forced himself to stand and change back before plopping back on the couch.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Tacome asked, only having seen it twice.

"No." Sam shook her head.

"My ghost half's getting sick." Danny said, "I didn't think it possible."

The others looked at each other. "Has your ghost half gotten sick before?" Vincent asked.

"Only if _I'm_ sick." Danny said, "But by himself? No." he shook his head, "No, Nick said you have a kid?" he asked.

Tacome and Vincent nodded, "Yeah- when?"

"As he walked in. He said that you're kid was worried about you." Jazz said.

"Oh." Tacome nodded, barely remembering the comment, "Yeah, a little two-year-old." She said. "Jayden."

"Wait- didn't you say you were out here _three_ years?" Sam rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, yeah, we know." Vincent said, "What were we thinking? Having a kid in the middle of a zombie apocalypse?" he asked, repeating what had been said to him and Tacome several times. "We didn't _try_." He said.

"Their condom broke." Ellis said giggling.

Nick slapped the back of his head.

Vincent shot a glare at Ellis. Then looked back at the disturbed teens in front of him, "What he said." he said. Tacome had turned bright red and left to finish the laundry. "But forget about the details. The point is: we didn't try having a kid, it just happened. And he's healthy, so that's the important part."

"And smart, holy shit." Nick cursed and grabbed his head.

"Enough about us, though." Ellis sat down, "What's your guys' story? What happened when the apocalypse hit in Michigan?"

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I'm gonna go help Tacome." He said and left the room.

Jazz looked down.

"What's with him?"

"Our mom turned into a Witch." Jazz said. "She killed our dad and only Danny saw it." She said. "He's been traumatized and scared of Witches since then."

"Damn…" Ellis said.

"We were at our fast food place when a Tank ran through and almost tore down the whole building." Sam said, "It was actually my birthday."

"Oh- well happy late birthday." Vincent said.

"What happened to _your_ parents?" Nick asked.

"We just decided to say that they were evacuated." Tucker said. "Best to hope for the best in a situation like this… I guess." He said.

"Off topic:" Sam started, "Have you guys seen a halberd lying around?"

"We have one at the house." Ellis said. "Coach and I found it on our way to pick up some more ammo. Is it yours?"

"Yeah." Sam nodded.

"Should probably just have Coach and Rochelle come over here with Jayden." Vincent said. "Everyone gets a chance to meet everyone."

"You okay, kid?" Tacome asked when Danny sat in one of the chairs.

"I'd rather not talk about it." He leaned back, "I'll just leave it at that."

"Ah…" she nodded, "Family stuff?"

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Okay." She said, "Then I won't pry."

"And whatever's going on with my ghost powers is bugging me. I didn't know I could get sick in that form and be perfectly fine as I am now." He said.

"Did something happen before you got here? Or before we met?"

"Not that I can think of." Danny shook his head. "I went to the Ghost Zone for a bit, but that was it." He said.

"Mommy?" a small voice called after the door opened.

Danny looked over and saw a toddler standing in the doorway. "Tacome? Is this Jayden?" he asked.

Tacome popped her head out of the laundry room, "Jay-jay, come here sweetie!" she called excitedly.

The child giggled and ran to Tacome and threw his arms around her legs.

"Jayden, look." She knelt and pointed at Danny, "This is Danny." She said. "Go say hi."

"Danny?" he walked over to Danny and reached up for a hug.

Danny knelt down to Jayden's level and hugged him. "And he's two?" he asked.

"Two?" Jayden asked and walked back inside, "Daddy?"

"If Jayden's here, then Coach and Rochelle are too." Tacome deduced, "Come in and meet them." she said, "Hopefully it'll take your mind off some things." She guided Danny inside. when they walked back inside, Vincent was sitting on the chair holding Jayden on his lap and there were two new people on the couches accompanying Sam, Tucker, and Jazz. "Danny, this is Coach," Jazz motioned to the heavyset darker man beside Nick, "And that's Rochelle." She motioned to the darker woman that sat by Tucker. Sam and Jazz were sitting on the floor against the entertainment center at the front of the room. He nodded and bowed a little, nervous considering he'd never met these people before, "I'm Danny." He said and sat down beside Jazz.

Vincent had gotten into the kitchen and began throwing something together for a large breakfast. He glanced up and watched everyone talking amongst themselves and getting to know each other. However, he noticed that Danny remained silent and kept to himself. He looked back down at his cooking and continued. After putting together a large pot of soup, he called everyone in for breakfast.

"I don't get it." Sam said, slurping away, "We couldn't find _any_ food when we got here." She said, "Where was this?"

"Oh, well, Coach and I brought it over from the apartment." Rochelle said.

"We had no idea you guys were here." Ellis said, "And you guys are so young."

"Hey, uh… Danny, right?" Vincent called, "Mind giving me a hand?" he asked.

Danny has already finished eating. He wasn't too hungry and didn't get much to eat. He stood up and set his bowl down and followed Vincent out back. It didn't occur to him before how infested it was back there with mosquitoes. Every so often he'd smack his forearm or the side of his neck, only finding that the mosquito had escapes before he had a chance to swat it. "Are these mosquitoes here because of the pool?" he asked.

"Yeah, and it rained a lot quite a bit ago, so that's why the pool got filled up. It _was_ empty." Vincent explained

Danny shuddered, realizing that he fell into a pool full of mosquito larvae and his clothes were most likely infested with them.

"You okay?" Vincent turned and asked.

"I fell in the pool the other day." He said grimly.

"Gross." Vincent bent over and picked up a basket. "Here, can you help me take this to the car?" he asked.

"Sure." Danny took the basket.

"Go ahead and open the back gate." Vincent called.

Danny leaned over and found the gate that lead to the driveway and the carport, "Wouldn't the zombies knock it down?" he asked.

"They haven't figured that out." Vincent said and picked up another basket, "Thankfully. That and there's so little and we're rarely ever here, it's never been an issue." He said and followed Danny out, who'd already gone through the gate.

"We should barricade it." Danny said. "Just to be safe."

"Well- yeah, now that we know someone's here." Vincent said. after the three baskets of laundry were loaded into the car, Vincent opened the driver's door, "Wanna come along?"

"Um… I guess." Danny said hesitantly.

"Come on, dude, I don't bite." Vincent said.

Danny sighed and got into the front passenger seat.


	7. Chapter 6: Let it Out

"So, what's the matter, dude? Why so upset?" Vincent finally asked. They'd gotten to the apartment that the other party of seven had been staying in and unloaded the laundry. At this point, they were getting ready to get back into the car.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, beginning to avoid eye contact.

"I mean you've been quiet for the entire several hours I've known you, you're not making eye contact with me, and you're not even speaking to the friends you have in the living room that you've known for much longer than us." Vincent said, his hard tone forced Danny to make eye contact with him. Vincent was silent for a while, "It was a family member, wasn't it?" he asked after reading Danny's eyes for a while.

Danny looked back down. "Yeah."

Vincent nodded and began driving down the main street, quickly passing the Sonic that they'd revived Tucker in front of, and quickly passing several apartments after that. Vincent finally made a right at the intersection of Arizona Ave. and Ray Rd., driving down Arizona.

"Wh-where are we going?" Danny asked.

"I want to show you something." Vincent said, his tone was flat and his eyes were saddened. "What happened?"

"I- uh-" Danny shook his head, "I really don't want to talk about this…" he said.

Vincent nodded slightly, "Right…" he said and turned onto a street labeled 'Oakland', the opposite end of the street they had passed before. Vincent took a deep breath and pulled over in front of a house with a small dead tree up front.

Danny looked out the window. "Whose house was this?" he asked and opened the door.

"My brother's." Vincent said, "I lived in the back with my mom. There was a separate section of the house that was like a studio apartment." He explained and got out of the car. He then leaned on the passenger side of the hood of the car. Danny got out and leaned against the car next to him.

"I was leaving work when the apocalypse happened. I'd never heard from my friends since, so one would only assume. I got home from work before I realized what was happening. When I was leaving to meet Tacome at Sonic for when she got off, all hell broke loose." He said. "My mom hadn't been home all day. Turned out she was in the front part of the house visiting my brother." He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, "I heard screaming." He continued, "I had to see what was going on, because I got worried about them. I-" he shook his head and sighed, "After three years, I still have nightmares of what I saw in that house. In that room." He looked over at Danny, "My mom had turned." He said. "We didn't _know_ she was sick… we didn't know there was something wrong with her, but before I knew it… she'd…" he swallowed hard, his eyes unfocused, "She'd killed my brother and his wife and she was staring at me. It wasn't her anymore. I gripped the sword that I'd brought with me, j-just in case…" he said, "Then she charged at me." He said shakily. "Charged at her youngest kid and she jumped on me. I dropped the sword and could only grab a lamp that fell off the table. Keeping her at bay with my arm I had to hit her with the lamp until…" he sighed, "Until she stopped trying to attack me. Until she stopped trying to do _anything_… until she was dead…" he looked down.

Danny sunk.

"I was an absolute wreck." He said, "I wasn't walking straight, I couldn't think… I couldn't even talk. Tacome tried getting something out of me, but I couldn't respond to her. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't." he looked back up at the house. "We drove to Mesa to try and get out of here, maybe even with her family, since that was the plan. But, after finding that there wasn't enough room for the both of us, we ended up stuck out here. Now _she_ doesn't have her family with her either." He said. "We were about to leave when the Bulldozer flipped us." He said, "We were lucky to survive, let alone escape. She was really hurt and my leg was nearly broken. I had to carry her home." He shook his head, "Weeks down the line, I'm still depressed, she's worried about me- I-" he sighed, "I wanted to take on Saundra with my own hands. Then Tacome sat me down and hugged me. 'Don't keep it inside.' she said, 'Let it out. Otherwise, you'll only destroy yourself if you do.' She insisted that I let it out. And… I finally broke down." he said. "I couldn't keep it in anymore… I cried as hard as my body would let me." He took a deep breath and relaxed. "Thinking about my mom is always hard. But Tacome couldn't stand to see me the way I was anymore." He shook his head and finally made eye contact with Danny, "The moral of the story is, just let it out. We're all only human. Or- at least, mostly. I know you're worried about your ghost half, but your human half needs to let off steam too."

Danny nodded and thought for a while. "My mom turned too…" he finally said. "I came home from school and was going up to my room. On my way there, I heard my mom crying, so I went back down, told my dad… then I followed him back up to their room. He closed the door and tried talking to my mom. I don't know what happened, I guess he tried to hug her or something, but she screamed and-" he paused, "I phased through the door to see what happened, and… I could barely recognize him after she was through with him." He said, "I backed out, and my sister was behind me, I-I couldn't take the sight of it, I just threw up. He was just a pile of- of blood and bone, there wasn't anything left of him." He began trembling.

"You can stop whenever, you know." Vincent said.

Danny swallowed hard, "I know…" he took a deep, shaking breath, "Jazz and I left… We _had_ to. We couldn't stay in there anymore. So… we went and found Sam and Tucker, which- it was Sam's birthday at the time-about two weeks ago… and… we went for the second closest Evac site we could find on the map."

"Which was…?" Vincent asked.

"Wisconsin." Danny said, "Hundreds of miles away from where we started. So- we finally get to the site, and the site is at the mansion of the man who was in love with my mom… turned out he went to check on everyone and let my mom out of her room. She chased after him all the way through the Ghost Zone. She hurt him… really bad. He died after we found him. Then we heard crying in the basement. She was downstairs. We just- stayed away from there. Only ghosts could in and out of there anyway, so we figured that we were safe." He sighed, "Well… then the horde attacked the mansion. I overshadowed a Tank and fought a Bulldozer. The Bulldozer threw me through the front wall and I crashed through the floor and into the lab in the basement. I got out, killed the Bulldozer… and…" he took a deep breath, "Mom got out of the basement." He said, "I was so scared that I froze. I couldn't move. Jazz was scared too and could only hug me. When mom ran at us… the only one to take action was Sam. She jumped in front of us and shot her with my rifle. Sam hasn't touched that rifle since." He said. "After that we went to the ghost zone through the portal at the mansion." He sighed shakily. He swallowed hard, "I still have nightmares about it."

Vincent pat his back. "You get what I'm saying though, right?"

Danny nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright then." Vincent nodded, "Let's get back. I'm sure your friends are worried about you." He got back in the car.

"What exactly was the purpose of this trip?" Danny asked.

"Just…" Vincent sighed, "Just trust me on this. You'll feel better before you know it."

"Feel bett-!" Danny groaned and crossed his arms, looking away in agitation, seeing that the trip had only made him feel worse.

"Trust me." Vincent said as he pulled into the driveway at the house.

Danny got out of the car before Vincent had the chance to put it in park. Before anyone had the chance to even say anything to Danny, he'd already crossed the house and closed himself into the room that Sam and Jazz stayed in. Tacome watched him go, then turned to look at Vincent, "What did you two do?" she asked.

"Danny?" Sam got up and went after him.

"I did for him what you did for me." Vincent said.

"What're you talking about?" Tacome asked.

"He needs to let it out." He said.

"Wait, what'd you do with my brother?" Jazz asked.

"You'll see." Vincent said.

Ellis, Rochelle and Coach exchanged confused glances and went back to their game of poker with Nick. Jayden sat with Tucker and played with a broken cell phone that was lying around. Tucker had grown silent. He wanted to go talk to Danny, but with how well he and Jazz knew him, they knew he didn't want _any_ company when he was upset like this. He stood up, "Go see your mama, Jay." He started for the room.

"Danny, what happened?" Sam grabbed his shoulders and made him look up at her, his face red with aggravation.

"He tried making me feel better by getting me to talk about my mom." He growled and held the sides of his head, looking back down again. "I only feel worse…"

"That's… not something to get so pissed off about." Sam said, "He's trying to help you."

"Whose side are you on?" Danny asked.

"Yours." She said, "I'm tired of seeing you so serious and all beat-up like this." She said. "Vincent isn't a bad guy. He just wants to help you. He's been out here for three years. That's _way_ longer than _we've_ been out here for." She said and sat by him, "What did he tell you?" she asked.

Danny sighed, "He lost his mom too. She turned and tried to kill him after killing his brother and sister-in-law." He said. "He had to kill his mom." He said.

"And?"

"He… was a complete wreck." Danny said, "Depressed to the point where he wanted to fight that crazy Witch bare-handed. Then Tacome finally got him to cry." Danny said.

"And then?"

Danny's eyes watered, "I told him about _my_ mom…" he squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head.

Sam watched his shoulders begin to shake for a moment then hugged him. She understood what Vincent did and why he did it. Tacome had explained to her everything.

"Danny?" Tucker's voice called from behind the door, then he opened the door, seeing Sam hugging Danny who was crying in her arms. He nodded, "I'll leave you two alone." He whispered and closed the door. He walked back down the hall and sat by Jazz, who was now absent-mindedly playing with Jayden. "Danny's lost it." He said.

"What?" Jazz shook her head and looked at him.

"He's crying." He said.

Vincent and Tacome sat in the back patio with the back door open, "I think your House Therapy worked yet again." Tacome said.

"I just hope he feels better." Vincent said, "He can lead a team much better when he's relaxed."

"I know _you_ can." Tacome said. "There was a huge difference between your performance before and after." She said.

Vincent nodded. "How's this pool doing?" he got up and checked.

"Three aces." Nick set three cards down in the middle of the table.

"Bullshit." Ellis said.

"Fine, take the cards." Nick gave him a look.

Ellis flipped the cards over, "Bullshit! Man, bullshit!"

"Hey!" Tacome snapped, "Watch your language around my son!" she snapped, "Ellis, I'm shocked that I don't have to yell at Nick most of the time."

Coach and Rochelle chuckled, "Just take the cards, Nick."

Nick grumbled, having only two cards left in his hand. Ellis' hand consisted of a good portion of the deck, while Coach and Rochelle were evenly matched.

"We ever figure out if that Ghost Kid was okay?" Coach asked.

"I'll ask him in a bit." Tucker said, only watching a little metal car skid on the plastic racetrack that Jayden was playing on. He flicked the car back.

"He'll be just fine." Rochelle said, "He'll be a lot happier here, I'll say that much."

"I know I was." Coach laughed.

About an hour and a half later, Tucker got back up to check on Danny again. He pressed an ear against the door and listened carefully, hearing nothing. He carefully opened the door and peeked inside, seeing Sam lying on her side, with Danny lying on his back and Sam's arm under the back of his neck, her other arm around his chest. Both sound asleep. Tucker nodded and walked back out to the living room, having closed the door behind him.

"How is he?" Ellis asked.

"They're asleep." Tucker said and sat down, continuing his turn at their game of Monopoly.

Tacome and Vincent walked in the front door, each with a cat in their arms. They'd left earlier to bring them over, considering there was no need for them when they were alone. They dropped the two cats, who'd sniffed their way to Jazz and Tucker.

"Key-key?" Jayden asked and began petting the small, black one, who was on Jazz's lap.

"Yeah, it's a kitty, huh?" Jazz asked, "How'd you find these two? Surely the infection would've claimed them a while ago."

Tacome picked the orange one back up after being pestered for her attention, "Thank god, no." she said, "They were still in this house when Vincent and I checked on it again. They'd been living off bugs and paper."

Tucker rose an eyebrow, "Paper?"

"Olive is weird." Tacome said, "And Buka would only eat half a roach." She scratched Buka's ear, "But I love them. This one was always my baby." She said and kissed the cat's head.

"How old?" Jazz asked.

"Buka here is… nine? And Olive is seven." Tacome said.

"Why do you keep them?" Tucker asked.

"They keep watch of zombies. They growl if a zombie gets too close, and they start barking when a human comes by, or meow." Vincent explained.

Tacome set Buka down, watching the cat make a straight beeline to the back bedroom.

"It's amazing they were still alive." Nick said, somewhat bitter about cats, always being a dog person himself.

The door to the bedroom opened and closed. As shuffling came down the hall, a drowsy Sam looked at everyone half-lidded. "Hey."

"Is your boyfriend okay?" Coach asked.

"He's asleep. He- kinda passed out while he was crying."

Vincent nodded, remembering that he had done that when Tacome got him to cry.

Sam took a moment to see the little black cat in Jazz's arms, "Who's this?" she knelt by and started petting the cat.

"That's Olive. You should've seen Buka on your way out." Tacome said.

"She's so cute!" Sam cooed and scratched the top of the cat's head. She paused for a moment, "Sorry about Danny's… frustration… earlier." She said, trying to figure out what to call it. "I saw what you were doing. And… I thank you." She said. "I just hope Danny sees it too and appreciates the help."

"And if he doesn't?" Nick asked.

"I'll slap some sense into him." Sam said flatly.

Vincent chuckled, "No problem, Sam. I totally get it. Teenage boy, zombie apocalypse, hormones, it happens. He's gonna have his own drama." He said, "I'm the proud father of an adorable little boy, I'm gonna face this eventually." His tone was serious, but he wasn't taking himself too seriously.

"Sam, Jazz, when did you last change your bandages?" Tacome asked, knowing that it had been too long.

The two girls looked at each other, "Um… the night before we met you, I think." Jazz said.

"Get up." Tacome said, "We're changing them right now."

"Oh- um, alright." Sam stood up.

"Jazz, drop the cat, let's go." Tacome looked over at Tucker, "Do you need bandages to be changed?" she asked.

"N-not really?" Tucker said in confusion.

"Not really?" Tacome rose an eyebrow.

"I don't have any bandages on me right now." He said.

"Okay, so no. Sam, Jazz, come on." Tacome motioned them to follow her. Then she paused and turned to look at Jazz, who was still cradling the cat. "Drop the damn cat!" she snapped.

Jazz immediately put the black queen down and quickly followed Tacome into the back bedroom. Sam snickered at Jazz's reaction of being yelled at by Tacome.

"Shut up." Jazz nudged Sam with her elbow, only causing Sam to laugh harder.

Tacome had them sit on a bed in the master bedroom, opposite of the room that they had stayed in the night before. She then dug around in the small bathroom and searched for more bandages. She finally stopped and looked up, "We're out." She said.

"What?" Jazz asked.

"We're out of bandages." Tacome repeated. She stood up and faced them. "We need to change those before you two get infected."

Sam and Jazz looked at each other nervously.

"Not turn to a zombie- thank god." Tacome rolled her eyes, "Wait- you guys _are_ immune, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, we're immune." Sam nodded, "We've made it this far, right?"

Tacome looked down, "You guys have been out here two weeks, right?

"Right." Jazz nodded.

"That doesn't mean anything…" Tacome said sadly and sat down next to them. "About… two months after the outbreak, Vincent and I had found another survivor. He was handy. Great shot, fast, great scavenger, until… there was a Twister. The Twister had gone beyond throwing stuff and went after him without warning. By the time Vincent and I finally reached him, Trevor was covered in blood. His ear was missing, his shoulder was shredded beyond repair, and his eye was… I don't even know, he looked like he didn't even _have_ it anymore. His entire right side was ruined. Vincent went and killed the Twister while I dragged him home. Then we patched him out, he only seemed to be getting worse. He'd been with us maybe about a week. We saved him from a Hunter, who'd already sliced up his arm. He- he was just fine." Tacome said, "He was then… after that Twister attacked him, his breathing was getting worse, he said he was losing his vision, he soon became unable to speak, move, unable to do anything. We thought he died. But when we went back to the living room, where he was, we instead found a Smoker. The Smoker was wearing Trevor's clothes and shared the same face. It was probably one of the hardest things to see." Tacome finally shook her head, "After Trevor constricted me, Vincent had to get over the shock and shoot him." She sighed heavily, "We hoped to never have to do that again. It put Vincent back into a dark place that was hard to get him out of."

Sam looked down and pat Tacome's back, "We're immune, Tacome. We promise."

Tacome took a deep breath, "I'll go out and find some bandages for you guys. Should probably grab a lot more anyway…" she said and walked off.


	8. Chapter 7: Faked Out

A deep rumbling sounded above him, weight pressed against his chest and stomach. Danny stared up into the dead eyes of the Tank above him. This Tank had already chased him down the street and thrown him into countless buildings and cars. His body throbbed and his eyes stung. He felt heavy, unable to lift his own arms to shove the beast away, or at least try. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath upon seeing the Tank raise his fist. Instead of a fist beating him into the ground, like he expected, a small paw pressed against his chest instead. He groaned and opened his eyes, finding an orange cat standing on top of him, kneading and purring loudly. He sighed and laid his head back, "Cat…" he grumbled. He opened his eyes again and looked up at her, "Cat?" he asked.

The cat purred and laid down on his chest, tucking her front paws under her and closing her eyes contently.

"Oh- no, Kitty." He gently nudged her back with his hand, "You're making me want to go back to sleep." He whined. "I need to get up…" he groaned.

The cat laid her head down.

Danny sighed, "Move, cat." He commanded sleepily. He then pushed her with a little more power and got her to move. However, it was only for her to stand up, stretch, and sit down and stare at him. He sighed and started scratching her ears, having her tilt her head so that he was forced to scratch the back of her neck. Her ear twitched and she looked toward the window, then jumped off his stomach with heavy force onto the windowsill. He grunted and held his stomach, "Okay…" he coughed, "That happened…" he took a deep breath and rolled into a sitting position with his feet on the pale, tan carpeting. He sighed and stepped out into the hallway. He made his way to the living room and waved at its occupants.

"Morning sleepyhead." Rochelle chuckled, "You've been asleep for a while."

"Enjoy your nap?" Nick asked.

"Yeah…" Danny mumbled and sat down next to Sam, who was then holding the black cat on her lap. He reached over and scratched the ears on Olive, "Where'd the cats come from?" he asked. "They weren't here before."

"Tacome and I went and brought them over while you were asleep." Vincent said.

Danny looked over and shrunk a little, "Um… V-Vincent, look…" he looked down, "Sorry for being a jerk earlier…" he apologized. "I… I didn't see what you were doing at first, but now I do." He said, Sam looking at him with a small smile. "Thanks." Danny finally made eye contact with Vincent.

Vincent smiled, "_Do_ you feel better?" he asked.

Danny nodded, "Much." He furrowed his brows, "Where are Tacome and Tucker?" he asked, seeing that they were the only ones not present in the room."

Tacome and Tucker were actually walking down the street in a small plaza of shops.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Tucker asked, his new hand gun clutched in his hand and his other hand holding onto the strap to the bag he was given for scavenging.

"Of course." Tacome nodded, "You know how many restaurants are here?" she asked, "Boomers are everywhere. Just shoot them before they get you and don't get blown up on." She advised. "That's really the biggest threat here."

Tucker relaxed a little bit, "Okay, then."

Tacome stopped and stared in the window of a shop that had several wedding dresses in the window, "Hey, Tucker. Wanna pick out a dress for Jazz?" she asked.

"Huh?" Tucker looked in the same window she was looking at, "What!?" he yelped and looked the other way.

"Oh, come on. It's obvious." She teased, "Besides, it's too dangerous to have a ceremony." She said, then she looked down sadly, "Vincent and I broke into a jewelry store and picked out our bands." She said.

Tucker paused, "Wait, you two weren't married before this?" he asked.

Tacome looked at him, "Well, no." she said, "We planned on it and wasn't able to get the paperwork done about it just yet. Now that everyone's undead, we… just got wedding bands and called ourselves married." She wiped her eye, "Our wedding dance was running away from a Charger." She said, "We were barely twenty when this all happened." She said.

"And now you're… what- twenty-three?"

"He is." She said, "I'm twenty-two."

"And your son, you said he's?"

"He's two." She said.

"Why did you-"

"We didn't plan him." Tacome cut him off.

"That poor-"

"Shh!" Tacome snapped.

"What?"

"Shut _up_." She insisted and listened very carefully.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Impossible." She whispered. She grabbed his wrist and started heading back to the house.

"What?" Tucker asked once more.

"There's a Tank over here." She said, "We're not armed enough to fight a Tank."

Tucker's blood ran cold. "A Tank?"

"Yeah… they're never in this area… they might be trying to switch territories." She said. "Just stay quiet, and we won't have to fight it."

Tucker nodded and stepped carefully. Walking quietly was the easy part, navigating around several cars that may be armed was difficult- considering that the area was layered. Fortunately, Tacome and Vincent had long ago, spray painted a line on each of the windows of the cars they _knew_ weren't armed. "Good thing you tagged the disarmed ones, right?"

"Yeah." Tacome nodded, "But we didn't tag all of them. There are some that we don't know are armed." She said.

"Like?"

"This one." she pointed at a late-model Cadillac, "We don't know whether or not this one has an alarm."

Just at that moment, Tucker had accidentally kicked the back of his own heel, tripping and slamming his hand onto the car. Both of them froze, expecting for an alarm to go off. However, there was no alarm. Both of them let out a breath and Tucker straightened up, "Well, now you know." He stepped back and bumped into another unmarked car. This time, an alarm wailed through the area.

There was a massive bellow that got the two to run twice as fast as normal. Tacome quickly glanced behind her and found that the calm sea of cars had become a vicious tidal wave of metal, glass and tires.

"You idiot!" Tacome slapped the back of Tucker's head and ran faster. "This way!" she screamed and pulled his wrist to the right, ducking into a convenience store. She jumped over the counter and yanked him over.

The rumbling that had been rolling after them stopped, the ceased sound was followed by a loud pounding and another bellow of frustration.

"What do we do now?" Tucker asked.

"Shut up and stay quiet, for one." Tacome snapped in a whisper.

Tucker looked down and away, "I'm sorry…" he whispered.

"I'm not mad at you." Tacome said softly, "I'm terrified. Tanks don't roam in this area. They prefer the mall or a parking lot bigger than that." She explained.

"You have all this down to a science, don't you?" Tucker asked.

"We gotta figure out zombie territories so we know what to look out for." She said, "We have a map and everything."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Tacome sighed. "I really hope this Tank doesn't stick around too long." She said.

Tucker looked back up at her. She had her head rested against the cabinet that they sat against and her weapons on her lap. She carried a magnum at the moment, a pair of swords and a pipe bomb. Compared to what he, Danny, Jazz, and Sam were comfortable with, she was lightly armed. He only had his throwing stars and a handgun that Danny had found earlier. He took a deep breath and looked back down.

"Sorry I snapped at you."

Tucker looked back up at Tacome. He scoffed, "Don't sweat it." He said, "I've always been a little clumsy…" he confessed.

"I'm just scared…" Tacome said, "I don't know if I'll see my baby again…" she said. "We're too far from everyone for them to hear the commotion."

Tucker sighed, "We'll be okay." He said, "Knowing our luck, some miracle will happen and we can make it home safely." Tucker said optimistically.

"'Knowing our luck'- that's _your_ luck." She said somewhat bitterly. "Knowing _my_ luck, it won't be the tank that kills us- but a Smoker that comes out of nowhere." She said bitterly, "Or even a Hunter." She sighed. "I should've listened to Vincent." She looked down.

Danny sat in the living room nervously and tapped his foot repeatedly. His hands folded in front of his face and his eyes staring at nothing in particular. He had heard the Tank. He'd told them that he heard it, but after telling them of the dream he'd just had and his encounter with the cat, they thought he might have just been hearing things. However, his worry grew worse and worse.

"Danny, relax, Tacome can handle herself out there, Tucker's perfectly safe with her." Coach said. He had Jayden sitting on his lap at this moment.

Danny closed his eyes and pulled his eyebrows together. "That's it." He stood straight up and changed forms to his sickly, paler, ghost half, "I'm going out for them." he said, his voice hoarse, raspy and barely present.

"Danny, not like that!" Sam protested, however, Danny had already taken off and had phased through the ceiling.

Ellis, Vincent and Rochelle were first to jump up and arm themselves, "Nick, Coach, watch Jayden and the girls." Vincent commanded.

"Yes, sir." Coach said.

Danny forced himself to stay airborne, and suppressed several coughing fits. He flew in the direction of where he heard the Tank- which just happened to be Downtown Chandler. He looked around the street and finally found the lumbering pile of muscle beating his fists into the ground. He then paused, hearing the growl of an engine behind him. He turned around to see that he had been followed. Sighing in relief, he realized that he left unarmed and without and backup. He landed, knowing Vincent and the others would have a hard time missing the Tank. As he landed, his knees buckled without warning and he fell to the side and coughed violently. As he gasped for another breath and tried not to cough, he yelped when something touched his shoulder, only coughing more.

"Sorry- Daniel, Sweetie, are you okay?" Rochelle asked, kneeling to help Danny up.

He looked up at her and took several deep breaths, "I don't know what's wrong with me…" he wheezed.

"Change back." She said calmly. "If being like this is getting you sick, then don't." she said, "Sam, Tucker, and Jazz need you."

Danny nodded, letting the rings scan him and change him back to a human. He took a deep breath and stoop up, wobbling slightly with a head rush. After his hearing returned to him again, he heard the rapid fire of an M-16 and the powerful shot of a combat shotgun and a sniper rifle. He turned around and watched Vincent and Ellis bring the powerful monster to his knees. Rochelle helped him stand up and watched Tacome run out of the convenience store and hug Vincent in relief. When Tucker stepped out of the store Danny ran and hugged him.

"Whoa!" Tucker stumbled, "Dude, what the hell?"

Danny stepped back and scratched the back of his head, "I was worried… I-" he sighed, "I don't wanna lose any more of my family."

Tucker smiled, "I'm okay, man."

"Come on, guys! Let's get back to the house." Vincent called.

"But we didn't find any bandages for Jazz and Sam." Tacome said.

Vincent paused.

"We can improvise." Rochelle suggested, "We always have."

"With wounds as fresh as theirs, I don't want to risk it." Vincent agreed with Tacome.

"Then Danny and I'll go." Ellis volunteered.

They all looked at Danny, "With your condition- would you even be up for it?" Tacome asked.

Danny paused, "Yeah, I'll be fine." He nodded, "It's only if I try using my ghost powers, so I should be fine, just as long as I don't use them."

Vincent sighed, "Fine, if you insist." He said, "But we're making someone else go with you. And you're arming yourself." He said sternly, "You are _not_ wandering around here with just your fists to defend yourself."

Danny felt as though he'd been scolded. He nodded, "Yes, Vincent."

"Come on, everyone in the car. Let's head home." Tacome called out and sat in the front passenger seat. This particular vehicle- a Ford F-150, was claimed as Vincent's, whereas Tacome drove a sky-blue Grand Marquis. Otherwise, she'd be driving. Ellis, Rochelle, Danny and Tucker all hopped into the bed of the truck, and Vincent got into the driver's seat. As they all drove off, Danny took note of this, "Hey, Ellis, Rochelle, how does the whole vehicle thing work?"

"What d'ya mean?" Ellis asked.

"I saw Tacome with the grey car, and Vincent with this truck." He explained.

"Yeah, do the cars stall that bad or something?" Tucker asked. They all spoke louder than usual due to the wind in their ears.

"No- we all have our own car." Rochelle said. "We just share most of them to conserve gas."

"How can we get one?" Tucker asked, beginning to get excited over the idea.

"If you can find the keys and hotwire it, then it's yours. Just as long as you can drive it." Rochelle said.

Ellis narrowed his eyes and smirked, "_Can_ you kids drive?"

Danny and Tucker looked at each other, then looked down and shook their heads.

"What, too young?" Ellis asked.

"No- old enough." Tucker said, "I was gonna get my driver's permit the day after this whole thing started in Michigan." He explained.

"I was grounded." Danny said shamefully.

Rochelle giggled, "Grounded? Why?"

"Missed curfew." Danny and Tucker said simultaneously.

Ellis laughed loudly, "What with savin' the world and stuff, you'd think they get it."

"They never knew." Danny said.

"Really?" Rochelle gasped. "Why not?"

"His parents were ghost hunters." Tucker said. "With a lot of 'ghost-detecting' equipment."

Ellis got quiet and just stared at them, "Wow."

"How'd you get out of that one?" Rochelle asked.

"By the skin of my teeth." Danny said. "Too many close calls."

"They actually caught him a couple of times." Tucker chuckled, earning an elbow to the ribs from Danny.

"Man, it's gotta be rough."

"It was."

The truck came to a stop after they had pulled up to the house. With a small conversation and a brief moment to regroup, Danny, Ellis and Nick were sent back out in search of bandages. Nick unfolded the map and laid it on the trunk of the car Tacome had parked in the driveway.

"So where're we going?" Ellis asked.

"Towards Lindsay." Nick said. "Not that far- and not very infested last time Vincent checked." He explained.

Ellis leaned over his shoulder and looked, "That's Hunter and Smoker territory." He pointed out.

Danny studied the map for a while. There were several highlighted areas and several symbols in certain areas. "What do these mean?" he pointed at one particular symbol. This symbol looked like the bottom part of a rake.

"That's how we tell what areas are territory to what." Ellis explained. "That one's Witch territory." He pointed at the same one that Danny had pointed to. "This one's Boomer," he pointed to a circle with a line running horizontally through it, "Smoker's." he then pointed to a swirl.

Danny studied these by himself. The next one was a circle with an 'x' through it, indicating a Hunter, next was an arch with a line going down through it, representing a Tank. Three vertical lines was a Charger, a horseshoe was a Jockey, a teardrop with a line going diagonally through was a Spitter, a question mark was a Shifter, a twisted line that looked like a spring was a Twister, and the last one was a skull and crossbones logo, representing a Bulldozer. He looked back at the map and didn't see any skull and crossbones logos, "There's no bulldozers here?" he asked.

"Can't say that." Nick shook his head and folded the map back up. "Fortunately we haven't seen one anywhere around here."

"Or unfortunately." Ellis said. "The big fucker could be _really_ good at hiding." Ellis climbed into a large dodge that had been parked across the street. After hotwiring the vehicle, it roared to life. "Come on, guys, get in!" he called.


	9. Chapter 8: Burned

Danny sat in between Nick and Ellis in the small cab of the large truck. He felt somewhat crushed between the two larger men, considering that everyone considered him to be small. He felt as though he'd gotten bigger since the apocalypse started. He did notice that recently if Sam hugged him, her arms didn't go as far around him as they used to. He watched cars and trees fly past them, thinking about how life used to be.

"You alright, kid?" Nick asked.

Danny nodded, "Yeah." He nodded, "Miss my old life."

"Don't we all." Ellis agreed.

"But if I get depressed again now, then Vincent's lesson would've been pointless." Danny said. "I'm just thankful to still be alive. And still have my sister and friends."

"That's always good."Nick nodded. "Didn't have much of a family before this, and even when this started… but Ellis, Coach, and Rochelle all became my family." He said.

"And after meeting Tacome and Vincent," Ellis continued, "We got more family."

"Haven't you guys tried getting out of here?" Danny asked.

"Yeah." Nick nodded, "We tried the evacuation center in Mesa. Tacome even told me that the place was trashed, though." Nick said, "But I didn't listen. We almost died getting out of there."

"If it weren't for Tacome and Vincent, we'd be dead." Ellis finished.

Danny nodded.

Nick watched Ellis pull up to a street corner and parked the truck. "Armed and ready, kid? Vincent and Tacome haven't cleared this area out completely yet. And they're leaving it to us."

Danny nodded and held up his rifle, "Ready." He said.

"And you have your pistol, right?" Ellis smiled and out of the truck, "You should save your sniper ammo for something important."

"Like Smokers?" Danny suggested.

Yep." Nick nodded and double checked the condition of the SMG he carried.

"Or Tanks or Witches." Ellis said, "Let's check this house here." He started and kicked down the door to a house. He fired three times into the house with his handgun before waiting a moment.

"All clear?" Nick asked.

Ellis was silent for a while, then there was another gunshot. He finally popped his head back out the door. "Is now." He said with a grin.

Nick sighed, "Don't scare me like that." He said.

Danny just stepped inside while Nick and Ellis argued behind him. He took three steps into the kitchen and froze in place, his body tensing up immediately. A blue mist escaped his mouth as he exhaled. He gripped his rifle tighter as he took another step. He came into view of a window where he was able to see a tree with apples growing on it.

"Danny!" Ellis called and jumped into the kitchen.

Danny jolted and jumped about two and a half feet in the air as a cat would. Ellis then began laughing, "Dude! You should've seen the look on your face!"

Nick walked in and slapped the back of Ellis' head.

"It's like you saw a ghost!" Ellis cackled.

Danny tensed and looked around the kitchen, having a feeling something bad was about to happen. Nick saw the serious expression on his face and tapped Ellis' shoulder, "_Is_ something here?" he asked.

Ellis took a deep breath and calmed down after seeing Danny's expression.

"There is." Danny nodded, seeing his breath as clear as day.

"Why are we seeing your breath?" Ellis asked, "It's the middle of July, it's hot as hell out here."

Nick slapped him, "Shut it!" he snapped.

Danny looked around and listened carefully, he was barely able to hear crackling, as though something was on fire, and it sounded like it was right beside him. He stared at the cabinets that were a deep, dark color. Almost black, they seemed. He straightened up, "I don't like this place." He shivered and shook out his right arm.

"Yeah…" Nick slowly agreed, "Let's find what we can and get out of here."

"I'm gonna grab some of these apples." Danny said, "I'm sure they'd do us some good."

"Go ahead." Nick nodded, "We'll check the bedrooms for some first aid." He said and pulled Ellis along, who was speechless and looked around the kitchen with wonder.

"There're ghosts here?" Ellis asked.

"There are." Nick nodded, "At least that's what the kid says."

"I believe him." Ellis said.

"What?" Nick asked.

"Kid with the _ghost_ powers?" Ellis asked, "You saw him with your own eyes, it's possible." He shoved open a dresser with a sliding door toward the bottom, which was actually used for linens. "If he says there's a ghost here, I believe him."

Nick stepped out of the closet. "I understand _that_." He said sharply, "I meant 'what' because I couldn't hear you."

Ellis rolled his eyes and grabbed a plastic first-aid kit that laid in front of the folded pile of sheets. "Ow! Mother f-" he flinched and threw the first aid across the room, "What the hell?"

"What's wrong? Was it sharp?" Nick asked and went to pick it up.

"No, it's hot." Ellis waved his hand.

"Hot?" Nick pulled his hand away, almost thinking the action was a prank, but then he saw Ellis' expression, he took his word for it. "How?"

"Like it was made of metal or something." Ellis explained.

They both jolted upon hearing a woman scream, then hearing Danny's scream immediately after. They jumped out of the room and straight into the kitchen, seeing a woman standing against the wall, clothes burned and skin charred, and Danny on the floor staring terrified at her. The woman looked up at Nick and Ellis and vanished, her voice echoing, "May you all burn like the rest of them!" where she stood was now lit up with flames, quickly engulfing the house. A part of the ceiling fell between them before any of them could move.

"Guys! Just get out of here!" Danny waved them off.

"What about you?" Nick asked.

"What about me? I can fly, you guys can't, just go!" he snapped, "Go get help!"

Nick and Ellis both ran out the front door, both feeling irresponsible for having left a teenager inside a burning building. They looked around, seeing several zombies surrounding the area, however, they completely ignored Nick and Ellis and stared at the blazing house. They heard popping and crashing inside and turned around to see the house.

"I don't see him…" Ellis said in concern.

"Maybe…" Nick started and stopped himself. "He's trapped." He said.

"The front door's blocked…" Ellis looked at Nick.

"You stay here-" Nick grabbed a pipe bomb from his belt and threw it as far over as he could, "Find some way to help Danny." He said.

"What're you gonna do?"

"I'm going to go get Tacome and Vince to see if they can figure out how to put his place out. If we leave this fire going, it'll burn down the rest of this area. It'll burn down the rest of Chandler." He started for the truck, "Just try and get Danny out of there!" he drove off quickly.

Ellis watched him leave, then jumped after hearing the pipe bomb explode and send the small horde of infected into the air in several pieces. With a quick whoosh, the house only remained in smoke. The flames were now nonexistent. "What the-?" he muttered, "D-Danny?" he called, carefully approaching the house. "Kid? Say something?" he called, terrified as to what had happened and to how quickly it happened. "Danny!" he shouted.

There was a slight groan and some of the rubble shuffled.

Ellis jumped over a charred coffee table and a couch now nothing but ash and picked up the rubble that had moved, "Dude! You said you can fly."

Danny stood up shakily, sore all over from the fire. "I tried." He said. "That fell on me before I had the chance…" he looked up at Ellis.

Ellis gasped, "What happened to your face?" he asked.

"What?" Danny asked and felt both sides of his face, shouting in pain after feeling that the right side of his face stung. He looked back down at his hand and found a streak of blood. "What the…?" he looked down and noticed his rifle was destroyed. Considering it was fully loaded, he could only assume that all the rounds were destroyed or set off by themselves. One of them apparently barely skimmed him and just cut his cheek. He considered himself lucky at the moment.

"What was that all about?" Ellis asked, looking at the spot where the woman was standing, the source of the fire.

"Pissed off ghost." Danny said. "That would explain the crackling I heard." He said and looked up at the tree that he was initially trying to pick apples from, "I get it now…"

"What?" Ellis asked.

"Anything claimed by the fire would burn to touch." Danny said and started walking out of the house.

"Do you know why she was so pissed off?" Ellis asked.

"Nope." Danny said. "All she said was all you and Nick heard." He looked around, "Where _is_ Nick?"

"He drove home to get help from Tacome and Vincent." Ellis said. He looked back down at Danny who had just sat down on the curb, "You alright, man?" he asked and sat by him.

"I'm sore." He said, "I'm probably covered in burns right now. I almost lost my face or even my head to my own rifle when the bullets got too hot... I'm tired, sick, worried..."

Ellis pat his shoulder, "You're alright, kid. I promise." Ellis said, "Next time we go into a house and you sense a ghost, we're high-tailing it out of there."

Danny nodded.

"What do you mean that house caught fire? It was burned down before the apocalypse happened." Tacome asked, Vincent was in the passenger seat beside her and Nick was in the back seat.

"It just _caught_ fire." Nick said, "The crazy bitch was staring Danny down and she burnt the fucking place down."

"How? What did she do?" Vincent asked.

"She just disappeared and said that we'll 'burn like the rest of them', whatever the fuck that means." Nick crossed his arms.

"Burn like the rest of them?" Tacome muttered and thought for a while. "Oh…. That girl…" she groaned and pulled over in front of the house where Ellis and Danny sat.

"What?" Vincent looked at her. He was never even aware that a house had caught fire in that area.

"Bullshit!" Nick barked, seeing that the house was no longer in flames.

Danny and Ellis let themselves into the back seat of the car, Ellis being careful with Danny. Danny quickly fell asleep after sitting down.

"Tacome, Love, what happened? Is the place haunted or something?" Vincent asked.

"Apparently." Tacome said. "Everyone just stay away from this house." She said as she drove away and toward home.

"What did you mean about 'girl' anyway?" Nick asked.

"This place was set on fire on accident by a woman with a lot of anger at the time." Tacome said. "There was this woman who was married to a guy who… I guess drank too much and always had his drinking buddies over. Well, one night, there was an accident. One of them found the husbands guns and… accidentally shot their kid." She said.

"Whoa…" Ellis gasped. Nick and Vincent sat in silence.

"After their kid was cremated, of course the woman was furious. So she took all of the bottles of alcohol and shattered them, spilling _everything_ inside, vodka, whiskey, wine, you name it, he was a collector-slash-alcoholic. He comes into the kitchen and screams at her, just- absolutely pissed that she'd done this and goes back out into the living room with his drinking buddies."

"He has the _nerve_ to invite them back over after they shot his kid?" Nick asked in shock.

"Supposedly." Tacome said. "Anyways, so she takes a lighter, initially to light a candle, and- because she was covered in alcohol, she-"

"Accidentally burned herself alive." Vincent finished.

"And since she was burning, the floor- also covered in liquor- caught fire too. And before they knew it, the house was down and the four of the people inside were killed."

"How do you know all of this?" Ellis asked.

"It was on the news." Tacome said. "The guy had four drinking buddies. One was arrested for killing the kid, two of them died as well as the wife and husband, and the one guy who survived told them everything. He was actually the one person who _wasn't_ drinking that night besides the wife."

"My god…" Vincent said in shock.

"That explains why she's so pissed." Ellis said. "Her ghost."

"I guess so." Tacome nodded. "If I remember correctly, she said that she didn't want another firearm in that house ever again."

"Which probably triggered everything." Nick said, "All three of us have guns."

Tacome checked her rear-view mirror to check on her passengers, "What happened to Danny? Was he caught inside?"

"He's all burnt up, yeah." Ellis nodded.

Tacome nodded. "We have bandages." She said, "We just resorted to cutting up a sheet."

"Desperate measures?" Nick asked.

"Sam was starting to look sick." Vincent said. "We had to do _something_."

Ellis grew quiet and looked over at Danny, knowing that there was thing going between the two teenagers. "So… we'd be able to patch up Danny too, right?"

"Yeah. Though… I don't know if we have any burn cream left." Tacome said.

"We have those Aloe Vera plants on the corner of the street." Nick commented.

Tacome shuddered, "I hate that stuff…"

"Why? It works." Vincent said.

"It's cold, it's sticky, it's smelly, I just don't like it." She complained.

"Maybe the Aloe Vera doesn't like _you_." Ellis said.

"Then we are hereby rivals." Tacome settled. She pulled up in front of the house and parked the car. "Someone carry Danny inside." She said. "And try not to wake him up."

Nick stepped out of the car and let Ellis out through the passenger side, then went to the driver's side and carefully pulled out Danny and carried him inside. When he stepped inside, Coach and Rochelle stood in the kitchen preparing some dinner, Tucker was reading, and Jayden was sitting down watching a movie.

"My god, is he okay?" Coach gasped.

"There was a fire." Nick said and laid Danny on the couch.

Upon hearing 'fire', Tucker put his book down, "What- Danny? What happened?"

"He's okay. Just a little burned up, that's all." Tacome said.

"Danny?" Jayden asked, having hopped down from the couch and made his way to Danny's side.

"Danny is sleepy, Jayden, go sit down and watch your movie." Vincent said, adding a commanding tone toward the end of his statement.

"Help-oo?" he asked.

"Yes- we're helping him, but you need to go sit down." Tacome said, retrieving some bandages that they'd torn up before.

"Jayden, come here and get some food!" Rochelle called, summoning the child to her side.

"Thank you, Rochelle." Vincent said.

"Nah, but really. Dinner's ready." Coach said. "I'll make up a couple of plates for the girls and set them aside. All of y'all come get some when you're ready."

**I'm running short on ideas everyone. Review anything if you got any ideas. I am planning on ending this soon, just- maybe one more chapter. Thanks so much for those who've followed this story! 3 **


	10. Chapter 10: Final Blow

**To answer everyone's question, _no_ I am not including Dani. I didn't see her in any scenes, so I just left her out. Besides, I've run out of ideas for this story except for this last chapter, so I'm ending it here. Anyway... read on...**

"Tacome, I'm not liking the way that 'Danny' kid is looking lately." Nick said. He sat at the table in the center of the dining room at the apartments that they were staying at. It had been two months since Danny and his friends met Tacome, Vincent, and their family. Earlier that day, Danny had collapsed randomly while they were out shooting.

"Nobody is…" Tacome said. "He's looking worse and worse every day."

"I vote we move into the house." Rochelle said, raising a hand.

"Me too." Coach agreed, "We can use the space anyway."

"That's cramming eleven people into a three-bedroom house though…" Tacome pointed out.

"It can be done." Vincent said. "There's always the living room." He said.

"I'll pass on the living room." Nick said, "Jayden's not toilet trained yet and I've _seen_ what he's done to that couch."

Ellis scoffed, "I've slept in worse." He said, "And I'm surprised _you're_ complainin' Mr. My-Friends-Found-Me-Sleepin'-on-a-Dead-Tank."

"I _wasn't_ sleeping, I passed out." Nick corrected him.

"Girls, that's enough." Coach said. "Ellis' right though… we _have_ slept on worse."

"How's this? Coach and I'll take the couches. We'll let Tucker, Danny, Sam and Jazz share Tacome's old room." Ellis suggested.

Coach sank, knowing he probably shouldn't have said that Ellis was right.

"Okay." Tacome shrugged, "I can deal with that. We move tomorrow. Pack your stuff." She looked around, "This place is too small anyway."

After the decision had been made to move into the Ivanhoe house, everyone helped them move. Even Danny insisted, however with a better night's sleep, they found it hard to keep him down. They reluctantly allowed him to help.

As he was loading one of the trucks with some of Jayden's clothes, he heard the boy wandering behind him. He turned around and saw that he had wandered almost halfway down the street, "Whoa- is anyone watching Jayden!?" he called and ran after him. "Jay-jay, come on, let's get you home to mommy." He urged the child.

"Mommy?" Jayden turned and started for home.

There was snarling heard afterwards. Danny turned and found the fabled Witch, Saundra. She looked right at him and Jayden. She howled and ran at full speed at Jayden. However, Danny was fast enough to shove her out of her path towards Jayden and knock her over. "Guys! Grab Jayden!" he barked and began running the other way away from Saundra.

All of the other ran out of the house after hearing Saundra's scream. Tacome ran and picked up Jayden, holding him closely.

"Is that-?" Sam squinted.

"Saundra!" Vincent began running at full speed with his shotgun in hand.

Danny had run passed the Sonic: Drive-In, and passed the Dollar General, and even ran until he barely passed a McDonald's, which was only at the next intersection. He felt that he had gotten far enough and was sure he got enough distance from her. He reached at his side and tried pulling out his handgun as he turned, however, his handgun was stuck in its holster and Danny was now face-to-face with Saundra.

His stomach twisted in pain. He gasped and grabbed Saundra's wrist, looking down and seeing that her hand had gone through his stomach. He stumbled, but kept his balance. He glared at Saundra and finally got his handgun free, aiming the gun at her forehead… right between her eyes, and shot her point blank.

The Witch's head jerked back from the shot and she fell back, pulling her hand out of Danny's stomach.

Danny stared at her for a moment, his vision doubling and fading. He dropped his handgun and grabbed his stomach.

The others had run to catch up with Danny, but froze upon his state and at the sight of the dead Witch that had caused them years of trouble. "D-Danny?" Sam gasped.

Danny looked at them in exhaustion. He turned and found a trailer to a large delivery truck. He climbed into the open back and paused to catch his breath. "I'm sorry, guys…" he coughed, blood dripping from his mouth. He reached up and pulled the door down.

"Danny! Wait!" Sam and Jazz ran to the truck. The door slammed shut, causing them to stop in their tracks. They picked up the pace and ran until they reached the door of the truck. "Danny! Let us in!" Tucker shouted.

Danny dropped to his knees and coughed violently, feeling as though he'd throw up. He took a deep breath and rested himself against the wall of the side of the trailer. He heard them yelling at him. 'Let us in!', 'You need help!', 'Don't be stupid!'… his eyes watered. He was able to feel his own heart slowing down. His body had already gone numb and his breathing was slowing. His eyes began drifting shut. The trembling had stopped.

This was it. He knew it was. He wasn't going to see Sam, or Jazz, or Tucker anymore. He didn't give them a chance to say goodbye and he felt horrible about it. He wished he'd survived longer. His felt a lump in his throat and his eyes water. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a small, weakened cry, "I'm sorry…" he whispered. The shouts and screams outside of the truck hurt him more. There was now loud thumping. He knew they were starting to try to open the truck. The noises gradually dulled themselves to nothing.

Ellis held two screwdrivers against the lock on the truck to take it apart. One of the screwdrivers snapped and he cursed, "God dammit!"

"Fuck this." Vincent aimed his shotgun at the lock on the truck, firing and destroying it completely. They rose the door to the trailer and found Danny sitting against the wall of the truck. Sam, Jazz and Tucker each rushed to his side and tried calling to him to wake him up.

While they called out to him, Nick stood toward the back of the crowd, it wasn't that he didn't care, there was no room up front. He heard a slight buzz. He looked over and saw a giant mosquito-type of bug, however, it glowed green. He froze and held up the frying pan he just happened to have with him. With a powerful swing, he smashed the bug on the wall and caused the crash to echo in the truck. He flinched when everyone turned to glare at him, "What?" he asked, "You should've seen the _size_ of that bug." He said.

Tucker glanced at the wall beside Nick and gasped, having a double-take. He knew that bug from anywhere. He looked back at Danny. Sam had her arms wrapped around him and cried, holding his head against her chest. He was pale and wasn't breathing. His pulse was absent. Tucker's eyes heated and he moved closer to Sam, hugging her, Jazz and Danny, crying with them.

"Danny?" Jayden approached them, "Help-oo?" he asked. "Danny?" his eyes began watering. The toddler began crying.

Tacome picked up Jayden and wiped her eye. She'd grown to like Danny and his team. She only wished they'd been watching Jayden a little closer. Vincent was silent, as well as Coach, Ellis, and Nick. Rochelle was on the verge of tears like Tacome was.

"I really liked that kid…" Ellis finally spoke. "He… k-killed Saundra…"

"But… she returned the favor…" Nick said sadly, his eye watered.

Vincent knelt by them and hugged them, "We're sorry, you guys…" he said. "We… hoped to never lose anyone to this apocalypse again…"

Sam hugged Danny tighter, then paused, barely feeling light puffs of warm air along her neck, "W-we won't!" she gasped, "He's alive." She said and checked the pulse in his wrist, "He's alive."

Vincent turned around, "Nick, Ellis, go get a car, now!" he barked.

The two men nodded and ran off, racing to get a vehicle.

"Danny?" a familiar voice called.

Danny opened his eyes and gasped. The pain was gone. The world was black. He found the two rings scanning his body and changing him to his ghost half involuntarily. He took this opportunity to kick off the ground and fly and search for anyone, "Sam? Jazz? Tucker!?" he screamed. He picked up the speed and searched more frantically. After finding he was alone, he slowed down and dropped to his knees. He held his head in his hands, sobbing as hard as his body would allow him and changing back to his human half.

"Danny?" He heard someone call again. He looked up and found two light figures stood in front of him. He started toward them, "Hello?" he called. The world seemed endless, but eventually, the two figures made themselves clear. He hesitated to come any closer to them; the small, slender figure in the arms of a much larger one, both wearing the jumpsuits they were famous for. "M-Mom?" he asked, "Dad?"

They nodded, but looked as though they had been crying.

Danny stepped back. "I-I don't believe this…" he paused for a moment.

Maddie sniffled, "Danny…"

"We're proud of you." Jack managed a small smile.

He shook his head in disbelief, "H-How!? I'm _dead_! I got killed by a Witch! I'm…" he dropped to his knees, "I'm sorry…" he began crying, "I didn't survive…"

They knelt by him and wrapped their arms around him, "Danny… just listen…" Jack said and made him look up at them. "We're proud that you've lasted as long as you have." He said, then ruffled his hair, "With and _without_ those ghost powers of yours…" he smiled.

Danny flinched, "You know?"

"Well… we do now…" Maddie said.

Danny sunk.

"But…" Jack started, "You're not done."

"What?" Danny looked back up at him.

"Your friends and… your new _family_ are getting you help now." Maddie said.

"So…" Danny looked down.

"You're not dead, son." Jack smiled, "But you're in critical condition." His smile faded.

Danny shouted in pain as his chest began to sting. "Wait-" he grunted, feeling as though he was being shocked.

"They're not ready for you to go just yet, Danny…" Maddie said. "We just want to tell you how proud we are of _all_ of you. You, Sam, Jazz, and Tucker…"

The world began to change to white.

"We love you, son…"

Danny took a deep breath and jolted. He groaned weakly in pain.

"Danny!" Sam gasped in excitement. She hugged him.

Danny groaned at the slight stress in his stomach, "I- I'm not dead…"

"No, no, thank God…" Sam cried.

He felt someone else hug him, considering everything, he had a feeling it was Jazz. The voice gave it away: "Come on, let's give him some space." Jazz said, letting him go.

"D-Danny?" Sam asked, letting him go.

Danny grunted slightly.

"We found out what was wrong with your ghost powers…" she continued.

"You remember those bugs that gave _everyone_ ghost powers?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah…" Danny answered. Then realization hit, "Those little bastards…" he groaned and tried readjusting, however, he yelped in pain in doing so. He settled with staying in the same position.

"Is he awake?" Tucker's voice approached.

"Yeah." Sam turned around.

Danny finally opened his eyes and looked at everyone. Sam and Jazz were sitting on their knees at his side, Tucker was just walking into the room. It appeared to be one of the bedrooms at the apartment that Tacome and her team where moving out of.

"Dude, you scared us." Tucker knelt by him. "Next time, don't lock yourself in the back of a semi." He said.

"Yeah- what were you thinking?" Jazz asked.

"Honestly?" Danny started, "I… didn't think I'd survive…"

The three grew silent. Tucker sighed, "Anyway, Tacome and the others can't thank you enough for killing Saundra. You… put 'facing your fears' to a literal level."

Danny scoffed, "Thanks…" then he groaned.

"But Vincent and Tacome alone can't thank you enough for saving their son." Tucker smiled, "They want to thank you, but… they can't think of a way right now."

"Thanks, Tucker…" Danny held his hand up in front of him, easily making it go intangible without bothering the ghost part of him, he smiled slightly, "I've got my powers back…"

They all moved into the Ivanhoe house and made everything fit. Danny recovered from the Witch attack in a few months, however, his stomach had turned into his biggest weak spot, and he grew nauseous easily. His ghost powers made everything easier for everyone when it came to the 'Great Purge', which was an annual event where everyone went on a shooting spree and killed every infected in the area, including a Bulldozer that had moved into the area. Danny proved that he could kill a Bulldozer by overshadowing a Tank, causing Nick to lose an 'ammunition' bet to Ellis and Vincent. Several months later, they held a small ceremony for Danny and Sam and Tucker and Jazz, dubbing the couples married. Not long after that, another group of three survivors made moved in and made the family grow larger. The new names and faces belonged to a Zoey, Francis, and Louis.

**That's it! I'm done with this one! I'll _really_ need to get back into the zone if I even _think_ of doing another sequel to this. Unless y'all wanna hear Tacome and Vincent's half of the story, which includes the L4D2 cast. By the way, if _anyone_ gets mad about the whole 'bug thing getting Danny's ghost half sick when it's not supposed to affect him in the first place'? I don't care. I couldn't think of _anything_ else that would've done it except for the blood blossoms and I don't think I can put a blood blossom plant in my hometown and have it make sense. The bug thing was the only thing I could get to work. So don't complain.**


End file.
